THE EFFECT OF DELAYED ADDITION OF ANTIGEN AND E ROSETTING ON THE PROLIFERATIVE RESPONSE TO MYCOBACTERIAL ANTIGENS OF PERIPHERAL-BLOOD LYMPHOCYTES FROM NORMAL INDIVIDUALS OR FROM PATIENTS WITH TUBERCULOSIS OR LEPROSY

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  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 44  (3) , 585-591
Abstract
Some suppressor cells are reported to lose their activity when precultured without stimulus in vitro. The role of such suppressors in responsiveness to mycobacterial antigens of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) from patients with leprosy or tuberculosis, or from normal donors, was investigated. Delayed addition of mycobacterial antigens (Mycobacterium leprae, M. vaccae and M. tuberculosis), but not of a fungal antigen (Candida albicans) caused enhanced responses using PBMNC from most normal donors or tuberculoid leprosy [TT] (TT/BT [borderline tuberculoid]) patients. However, the effect was less common using PBMNC from the lepromatous leprosy [LL] (BL[borderline lepromatous]/LL) group (P < 0.01, using M. leprae, relative to the TT/BT group). This type of suppression probably reflects a normal mechanism which is diminished rather than increased in anergic patients. Delayed addition of antigens to E-rosetting cells did not result in enhanced responses. However, the different effects of E-rosetting on the responses to the mycobacterial antigens of cells from normals, TT/BT and BL/LL patients, suggested that there may be 2 types of proliferative response to these antigens.