摘要
Background: Brucellosis poses a serious threat to human and animal health,particularly in developing countries such as China.The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is one of the most severely brucellosis-endemic provinces in China.Currently,the host immune responses functioning to control Brucella infection and development remain poorly understood.The aim of this study is to further clarify the key immunity characteristics of diverse stages of brucellosis in Inner Mongolia.Methods: We collected a total of 733 blood samples from acute(n=137),chronic(n=316),inapparent(n=35),recovery(n=99),and healthy(n=146)groups from the rural community of Inner Mongolia between 2014 and 2015.The proportions of CD4^(+),CD8^(+),Th1,Th2,and Th17 T cells in peripheral blood and the expression of TLR2 and TLR4 in lymphocytes,monocytes and granulocytes were examined using flow cytometry analysis.The differences among the five groups were compared using one-way ANOVA and the Kruskal–Wallis method,respectively.Results: Our results revealed that the proportions of CD4^(+) and CD8^(+) T cells were significantly different among the acute,chronic,recovery,and healthy control groups(P<0.05),with lower proportions of CD4^(+) T cells and a higher proportion of CD8^(+) T cells in the acute,chronic,and recovery groups.The proportion of Th1 cells in the acute,chronic,and inapparent groups was higher than that in the healthy and recovery groups;however,there was no significant difference between patients and healthy individuals(P>0.05).The proportion of Th2 lymphocytes was significantly higher in the acute and healthy groups than in the inapparent group(P<0.05).The proportion of Th17 cells in the acute group was significantly higher than that in the healthy control,chronic,and inapparent groups(P<0.05).Finally,the highest expression of TLR4 in lymphocytes,monocytes and granulocytes was observed in the recovery group,and this was followed by the acute,chronic,healthy control,and inapparent groups.There was a significant difference between the recove
