Elevation of serum B-cell activating factor levels during visceral leishmaniasis.

Elevation of serum B-cell activating factor (BAFF) is one of the characteristics of immunological disorders, including autoimmunity, but the levels of BAFF in infectious diseases have not been studied well. Here, we showed the elevation of serum BAFF in patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL). The mean serum BAFF value in VL patients (4.65 ng/mL) was 4.3 times higher than that of healthy controls (1.08 ng/mL), and 90% of VL patients showed serum BAFF above the cutoff that was calculated as the mean + 3 SDs of the controls. This report is the first on elevation of serum BAFF during VL.