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ANTIMYCOBACTERIAL ANTIBODIES IN SERA FROM PATIENTS THROUGHOUT THE CLINICO‐PATHOLOGICAL DISEASE SPECTRUM OF LEPROSY
Author(s) -
Myrvang Bjørn,
Feek Colin M.,
Godal Tore
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
acta pathologica microbiologica scandinavica section b microbiology and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0365-5563
DOI - 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1974.tb00238.x
Subject(s) - precipitin , mycobacterium leprae , leprosy , antigen , antibody , immunology , medicine , lepromatous leprosy , antimycobacterial , virology , tuberculosis , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , mycobacterium tuberculosis , pathology
Sera from one hundred and thirty‐nine leprosy patients, clinico‐pathologically classified into seven groups, were examined for precipitating antimycobacterial antibodies by double diffusion in gel analyses. As the source of antigen, Mycobacterium duvalii tended to be superior to Mycobacterium bovis (BCG) and revealed precipitins in fifty‐seven of the sera. Throughout the leprosy spectrum, the proportion of precipitin‐positive sera increased from the tuberculoid to the lepromatous end giving a maximum of 73.6 per cent positive sera in the polar lepromatous (LL) group. Similarly, the number of precipitin lines also increased and in some lepromatous sera five lines were deciphered. The presence of precipitins was closely related to the density of Mycobacterium leprae in the skin of the patients. This suggests that the antigenic load is the main factor in determining the antibody formation in leprosy.