Chemokines and chemokine receptors expression in the lesions of patients with American cutaneous leishmaniasis

American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) presents distinct activeclinical forms with different grades of severity, known as localised (LCL),intermediate (ICL) and diffuse (DCL) cutaneous leishmaniasis. LCL and DCL areassociated with a polarised T-helper (Th)1 and Th2 immune response,respectively, whereas ICL, or chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis, is associatedwith an exacerbated immune response and a mixed cytokine expression profile.Chemokines and chemokine receptors are involved in cellular migration and arecritical in the inflammatory response. Therefore, we evaluated the expression ofthe chemokines CXCL10, CCL4, CCL8, CCL11 and CXCL8 and the chemokine receptorsCCR3, CXCR3, CCR5 and CCR7 in the lesions of patients with different clinicalforms of ACL using immunohistochemistry. LCL patients exhibited a high densityof CXCL10+, CCL4+ and CCL8+ cells, indicating an important role for thesechemokines in the local Th1 immune response and the migration of CXCR3+ cells.LCL patients showed a higher density of CCR7+ cells than ICL or DCL patients,suggesting major dendritic cell (DC) migration to lymph nodes. Furthermore, DCLwas associated with low expression levels of Th1-associated chemokines andCCL11+ epidermal DCs, which contribute to the recruitment of CCR3+ cells. Ourfindings also suggest an important role for epidermal cells in the induction ofskin immune responses through the production of chemokines, such as CXCL10, bykeratinocytes.