Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 1999;21(3):317-38.
doi: 10.1007/BF00812260.

Th1/Th2 balance in infection

C Infante-Duarte  1 , T Kamradt
Affiliations
Review

Th1/Th2 balance in infection

C Infante-Duarte et al. Springer Semin Immunopathol. 1999.

Abstract

Cytokines produced by T helper (Th) cells are of critical importance for the outcome of many infectious diseases. Producing the "right" set of cytokines in response to an infectious agent can be a matter of life or death. The Th1/Th2 dichotomy, although an oversimplification has proven useful in the analysis of immune responses to infections. In some infectious diseases, most notably leishmaniasis or infections with gastrointestinal helminths, one Th subset is indispensable for clearing the infection, whereas the opposite Th subset is detrimental. More frequently, both Th1 and Th2 responses are required at different time points to effectively eradicate an infectious agent. The granuloma responses to either Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Schistosoma mansoni provide illustrative examples and are discussed in this review. There is accumulating evidence for frequent coexpression of Th1 and Th2 cytokines during the in vivo immune response to infections. The mechanisms by which infectious agents modulate Th1/Th2 phenotype development are summarized here. Finally, we review here the current evidence for cytokine imbalances induced by infections as pathogenic or protective factors in autoimmunity and allergy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Immunology. 1992 Feb;75(2):232-7 - PubMed
    1. Infect Immun. 1997 Mar;65(3):872-6 - PubMed
    1. Chem Immunol. 1996;63:66-97 - PubMed
    1. Infect Immun. 1997 May;65(5):1953-5 - PubMed
    1. N Engl J Med. 1996 Dec 26;335(26):1956-61 - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources