1. ¹Grupo de Inmunobiología y Biología Celular, Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
2. ²Laboratorio de Parasitología Molecular, Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
3. ³Departamento de Biología Molecular, Instituto de Parasitología y Biomedicina López Neyra, CSIC, Granada, Spain
4. ⁴Laboratorio de Biologia Molecular e Inmunología Molecular Instituto de Biologia, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile
5. ⁵Instituto de Genética Humana, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia

Correspondence: Dr CJ Puerta, Laboratorio de Parasitología Molecular, Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá 1, Colombia. E-mail: cpuerta@javeriana.edu.co

Received 5 September 2007; Revised 17 October 2007; Accepted 31 October 2007; Published online 8 January 2008.

Abstract

We analyzed the effect of the truncated heat-shock protein 70 from Trypanosoma cruzi on maturation of human dendritic cells (DCs) derived from monocytes of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy donors and chagasic patients. The results show that the T-HSP70 is capable of maturing human DCs inducing an increase in the expression level of the CD83, CD86 and human leukocyte antigen-DR surface markers, as well as in the secretion of interleukin (IL)-12, tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-) and IL-6 cytokines. Results also show the existence of a differential functional activity of matured DCs from chagasic patients vs healthy donors in response to T-HSP70 protein and to HSP-70-derived A72 peptide, as only T-HSP70-matured DCs from chagasic patients have an enhanced secretion of IL-10 and a reduced secretion of IL-12. Moreover, the addition of A72 peptide to immature DCs from chagasic patients induced an increase in the percentage of cells expressing CD83 and CD86 molecules regarding to the expression level observed by cells from healthy donors. These findings suggest that T. cruzi HSP70 protein may induce a specific maturation profile on chagasic patients' DCs, which would favor the persistence of the parasite in the human host.