Is Acute Hemorrhagic Edema of Infancy a Complement Deficiency State?

Few studies on immunologic changes in patients with adenovirus infection have been reported. Mistchenko et al.6 reported immunologic abnormalities in patients with adenoviral diseases. They reported that serum values of IL-6, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor alpha were associated with severity of adenovirus infection. We found increases in CD81 T cells, HLA-DR1CD81 T cells and CD161 NK cells in patients with adenovirus infection during the acute stage. The increases in CD81 T cells and HLA-DR1CD81 T cells were remarkable in the child with severe adenovirus type 7 pneumonia. Moreover this patient had increased serum IFNgamma levels and peripheral blood IFN-gamma-producing CD31 T cells during the acute stage. Recently a method for intracellular cytokine staining has been developed that enables the detection of cytokine-producing cells by single laser flow cytometry.5 To our knowledge no other report has focused on cytokine-producing T cells in patients with adenovirus infection. IFN-gamma is produced by CD4 and CD81 T cells as well as by NK cells. IFN-gamma has been documented as an antiviral that inhibits viral replication, antiprotozoal activities and immunomodulatory activities.7–9 CD81 T cells might produce IFN-gamma in our patient with adenovirus type 7 pneumonia, because there was a marked increase in activated CD81 T cells.