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Results for “Leprosy”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1978

Lymphocyte transformation test in leprosy: decreased lymphocyte reactivity to Mycobacterium leprae in lepromatous leprosy, with no evidence for a generalized impairment.

Untreated leprosy patients were examined with respect to lymphocyte transformation in vitro after stimulation with mycobacterial and other microbial antigens, allogeneic lymphocytes, or nonspecific mitogens. Methods were used to circumvent technical variability. The results were compared with those obtained in controls matched for age, sex, race, and environment. No evidence was found for a generalized impairment of lymphocyte transformation in vitro, whereas a specific defect towards Mycobacterium leprae was demonstrable in lepromatous leprosy patients. The response to M. leprae, investigated in untreated and treated leprosy patients, decreased along the leprosy spectrum. Moreover, the results of the one-way mixed lymphocyte cultures showed that lymphocytes from leprosy patients had a normal stimulator and responder capacity, when they were tested against a panel of allogeneic lymphocytes. The influence of serum factors was investigated in untreated leprosy patients in the mixed lymphocyte culture. On average, tuberculoid as well as lepromatous sera showed a low-level depressive effect, but some sera showed a stimulatory effect. Therefore, a depressive effect of serum factors cannot be considered to be a general feature of leprosy. The correlation between the Mitsuda type of lepromin skin test and the lymphocyte reactivity in vitro to M. leprae was studied, and a positive correlation was found.

Antigens, Bacterial↗
PubMed1975

Depressive effect of serum from patients with leprosy on mixed lymphocyte reactions. Influence of anti-leprosy treatment.

Mixed leucocyte cultures, from two normal donors, were set up in media containing human serum from one of the following sources: (a) a pool of normal group AB donors; (b) Chinese, Malay or Indian patients with untreated leprosy; (c) the same patients after effective anti-leprosy treatment; (d) control Chinese, Malay or Indian subjects. Transformation was estimated by measuring the incorporation of tritiated thymidine in the last 24 hr of a 7-day culture period. Transformation was impaired in sera from treated lepromatous patients, but was less impaired or not impaired at all in sera from treated lepromatous patients. The loss of depressive activity after treatment was more marked in Chinese and Indian than in Malay patients. Transformation was also impaired, though to a lesser extent, in sera from patients with untreated tuberculoid leprosy; it was still impaired in sera from treated tuberculoid patients. There was no evidence of specificity in impairment of mixed lymphocyte reactivity and lymphocytotoxic antibodies appeared to play no role. The incidences of hepatitis B antigen and antibody and of anti-nuclear factor were not notably high.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Experimental lepromatous leprosy in the white-handed gibbon (Hylobatus lar): successful inoculation with leprosy bacilli of human origin.

Leprosy bacilli of human origin were inoculated into a white-handed gibbon by the i.v. and i.p. routes, and also locally into ears, testis and around an ulnar nerve. The animal was observed closely during a period of nearly 15 years and did not exhibit any clinical evidence of cutaneous or neurological disease. At death, a wide range of tissues was taken for bacterial counts and histological examination, and a disseminated and progressive infection was demonstrated. Acid-fast bacilli were found in many sites; their morphological appearance distribution in nerves, and pattern of multiplication in mouse foot-pads, and also the presence of anti-mycobacterial antibody in the serum and the absence of specific lymphocyte transformation were all in keeping with an infection by Mycobacterium leprae, at an early lepromatous stage. This is probably the first fully documented report of experimental lepromatous infection in a primate. The findings are discussed in relation to the long incubation period of le promatous leprosy and the difficulties of diagnosing the disease at an early stage in man.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Lymphocyte transformation test in healthy contacts of patients with leprosy. I. Influence of exposure to leprosy within a household.

Fifty-three household contacts of lepromatous patients, 37 household contacts of tuberculoid patients, and 91 control persons were examined with the lymphocyte transformation test (LTT) for their responses to whole and sonicated antigen preparations from M. leprae, to BCG, M. avium, M. gordonae, and phytohemagglutinin (PHA). The study was carried out in the Gurage area of Ethiopia in 15 households with a leprosy patient and 15 matched control households. Household contacts of lepromatous patients showed significantly greater LTT responses to antigens from M. leprae than the controls, whereas household contacts of tuberculoid patients did not respond differently from controls. Household contacts of lepromatous patients had significantly greater responses to M. leprae antigens when the index patients were "active," i.e., highly bacilliferous, than when they were "inactive," i.e., having a low bacillary load. The degree of sensitization, as indicated by the LTT response, in different exposure groups paralleled the degree of probable infectivity of the index patient. A preparation of antigen from whole M. leprae proved to be more sensitive and more specific in the LTT than did a sonicated preparation. A significant degree of cross-reactivity was found among the various mycobacteria in their LTT responses.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

[Effect of L-tetramisol associated with rifampicin in patients with lepromatous leprosy. L-tetramisol in patients with lepromatous leprosy].

In this work are presented results obtained in the treament of thirty patients suffering of lepromatous leprosy. In a group of fifteen patients L-tetramisol was administrated in association to antimocrobian drugs. The control group received only the last medication. Immunological modifications were not observed in any case. However, in six patients treated with L-tetramisol associated to rifampicin during three months it was possible to observe a notable improvement of the clinical state. In the patients that received L-tetramisol associated to other drugs or in those that received only antimicrobian drugs the clinical improvement was very low or null.

Adolescent↗