Abstract:

Objective To study the mRNA expressions of Toll-like receptor （TLR） 2 and 4 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells （PBMCs） of patients with leprosy. Methods SYBR Green fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR was conducted to detect the mRNA expressions of TLR2 and 4 in PBMCs from 30 patients with cured leprosy, 30 patients with active leprosy and 30 normal human controls. Results The expression of TLR2 mRNA in patients with active leprosy was significantly higher than that in those with cured leprosy and in controls （both P < 0.01）, but there was no significant difference between the latter two groups （P > 0.05）. The expression of TLR4 mRNA was of no significant difference between patients with active leprosy and those with cured leprosy or the controls （both P > 0.05）. Conclusion The expression of TLR2 mRNA is decreased in PBMCs from leprosy patients, suggesting that TLR2 may be a specific recognition receptor in patients with leprosy.

Key words: TLR, Peripheral blood, Leprosy