Whipple Disease: Intestinal Infiltrating Cells Exhibit a Transcriptional Pattern of M2/Alternatively Activated Macrophages.
Desnues, Benoit; Lepidi, Hubert; Raoult, Didier; Mege, Jean-Louis
[Article] Journal of Infectious Diseases. 192(9):1642-1646, November 1, 2005.

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: Whipple disease (WD) is a rare systemic disease caused by Tropheryma whipplei and is characterized by the presence of foamy macrophages with periodic acid-Schiff-positive inclusions in tissues such as lamina propria. For the first time, we report the gene-expression profile of macrophages in intestinal lesions from a patient with WD. Microarray and real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed that genes encoding CCL18, cathepsins, scavenger receptor, interleukin-10, and lipid metabolites were up-regulated in intestinal lesions. This transcriptional pattern corresponds to that of M2/alternatively activated macrophages. Our results suggest that the T helper 2 response in the intestinal environment may account for the pathophysiological properties of WD.

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