Impaired immune response to Candida albicans in cells from Fanconi anemia patients

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a genetic disorder characterized by bone marrow failure and cancer predisposi-tion. Several studies show alterations of the immunological status of FA patients including defects inperipheral blood lymphocyte subsets, serum immunoglobulin levels, and inflammatory cytokines.However scanty information is available on the response of FA cells to specific infectious antigens. In thiswork we examined the response of FA cells to different immunological stimuli and found a defectiveresponse of IL-1b, TNF-aand IL-17 toCandida albicansstimulation thus pointing to a potentially impairedresponse to fungal infections of FA patients.