Soluble CD4, CD8 and interleukin-2 receptor levels in patients with acute cytomegalovirus mononucleosis syndrome.

In this study we investigated the serum levels of the soluble forms of CD4 (sCD4), CD8 (sCD8) and IL-2 receptor (sIL-2R) in 15 patients with acute cytomegalovirus mononucleosis utilizing three different enzyme immunosorbent assays. The control population consisted of 10 normal healthy blood donors of the same age group. Soluble CD8 and IL-2R concentration was significantly higher in the first group of patients than in blood donors while there were no significant differences of sCD4 levels between the two groups. We studied the kinetic of release of sCD8 and sIL-2R during the convalescent phase in 8 patients and the data we have obtained suggest that sCD8 and sIL-2R may be of value in monitoring T cells activation during CMV mononucleosis.