EXPRESSION OF TGFb;, IL-12 AND PPARa; BY PERIPHERAL BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELLS FROM PATIENTS WITH CHAGAS DISEASE. EFFECT OF FENOFIBRATE TREATMENT IN VITRO

ALEJANDRO NEGRETE; NILDA PRADO; FEDERICO NICOLÁS PENAS; RADA, MARIA JIMENA; GOREN, NORA; CEVEY AGATA; , GERARDO ARIEL MIRKIN; JUAN GAGLIARDI

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Congreso de Sociedades de Biociencias; 2017

SAIC SAI SAP SAIB

Chagas disease is one of the main causes of cardiac failure inLatin America. About 30-40% of the infected people will developchronic chagasic cardiomyopathy leading to significant disability,with high economic and social impact.Control of host infection requires the development of an appropriate immune response that involves a delicate balance betweenproinflammatory and anti-inflammatory mechanisms.In this work we evaluated the expression of IL-12 and TGF-β in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of healthy (n=6) and Chagas disease patients with different stages of cardiac involvement(n=20). We observed a trend to increased expression of TGF-β andIL-12 according to the severity of cardiac involvement. A positiveSpearman correlation coefficient was found between the levels ofexpression of TGF-β and IL-12 in PBMC, irrespectively of the clinicalstatus of Chagas disease patients (r=0.7921, p0.05).Then, we evaluated the effect of 100 µM Fenofibrate (a syntheticPPARα agonist) on the expression of TGF-β and IL-12 by culturedPBMC. PBMC with increased TGF-β (patients of stages II and III)displayed reduced expression of this cytokine (p