ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The relationships between tonsillar immune responses, and viral infection and allergy are incompletely known. OBJECTIVE:To study intratonsillar/nasopharyngeal virus detections and in vivo expressions of T-cell- and innate immune response-specific cytokines, transcription factors, and type I/II/III interferons in human tonsils. METHODS:Palatine tonsil samples were obtained from 143 elective tonsillectomy patients. Adenovirus, bocavirus-1, coronavirus, enteroviruses, influenza virus, metapneumovirus, parainfluenza virus, rhinovirus, and respiratory syncytial virus were detected using PCR. The mRNA expression levels of IFN-?, IFN-?, IFN-?, IL-10, IL-13, IL-17, IL-28, IL-29, IL-37, TGF-?, FOXP3, GATA3, RORC2, and Tbet were directly analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR. RESULTS:Fifty percentage of subjects reported allergy, 59% had ?1 nasopharyngeal viruses, and 24% had ?1 intratonsillar viruses. Tonsillar virus detection showed a strong negative association with age; especially rhinovirus or parainfluenza virus detection showed positive association with IFN-? and Tbet expressions. IL-37 expression was positively associated with atopic dermatitis, whereas IFN-?, IL-13, IL-28, and Tbet expressions were negatively associated with allergic diseases. Network analyses demonstrated strongly polarized clusters of immune regulatory (IL-10, IL-17, TGF-?, FOXP3, GATA3, RORC2, Tbet) and antiviral (IFN-?, IFN-?, IL-28, IL-29) genes. These two clusters became more distinctive in the presence of viral infection or allergy. A negative correlation between antiviral cytokines and IL-10, IL-17, IL-37, FOXP3, and RORC2 was observed only in the presence of viruses, and interestingly, IL-13 strongly correlated with antiviral cytokines. CONCLUSIONS:Tonsillar cytokine expression is closely related to existing viral infections, age, and allergic illnesses and shows distinct clusters between antiviral and immune regulatory genes.
