Immunoregulation by Schistosoma mansoni.

Schistosoma mansoni is known to release an inhibitory factor of lymphocyte proliferation elicited in vitro. The effect of this dialyzable schistosome incubation product (DSIP) was tested in vivo on different aspects of the cell-mediated immune response. First, the DSIP injected into C57B1/6 mice markedly inhibited the delayed type hypersensitivity to sheep red blood cells (SRBC). Furthermore, the DSIP injected into S. mansoni infected Fisher rats at the beginning of the infection induced an inhibition of the specific lymphocyte response to S. mansoni antigen and of the spleen cell response to concanavalin A (Con A). The DSIP injected into uninfected rats also inhibited the spleen cell response to Con A. In uninfected as in infected rats injected with the DSIP, the lymphocyte response to Con A was restored after purification of the spleen cells on a nylon wool column. Moreover spleen cells from rats injected wtih the DSIP reduced the proliferative response of normal syngeneic spleen cells induced by Con A. This inhibition was not observed when cells from DSIP-injected rats were previously passed through a nylon wool column. In contrast, nylon wool depletion of spleen cells from infected rats injected with the DSIP did not restore the lymphocyte response to S. mansoni antigen. It seems tht DSIP could partly explain the modulation of the cellular immune responses observed during S. mansoni infection and could represent one of the mechanisms of this parasite's survival in the immunized host.