Interferon Gamma Assay For Diagnosis of Childhood tuberculosis

¹El-Gendy A.M., ²Abd El-Nasser G., ³El-Naggar B.M., and ¹El-Sheikh N.

Departments of ¹Microbiology and ³Pediatrics Faculty of Medicine Al-Azhar University and ²El Sahel Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.

We measured interferon- g (IFN- g) in supernatant of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) cultures stimulated with mycobacterial antigens. The study included ten children with newly diagnosed active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), ten with inactive TB and 8 healthy controls. IFN-g was quantified by ELISA. Antigen stimulated PBMCs produced IFN-g at significantly higher levels than the background levels of non-stimulated cultures. Following specific antigen stimulation in vitro with TB bacilli, the PBMCs from patients with active and inactive TB produced significantly higher levels of IFN-g (433.15±119.80 and 420.64±131.52 respectively) than controls (241.2±119.74), (P< 0.001). However, no significant difference was found between active and inactive TB patients. In conclusion, estimation of specific IFN- g production by PBMC may be a useful immunological tool for diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis.

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