A 46 year old Asian male with previously treated lepromatous leprosy developed a stepwise multifocal sensory disturbance 25 years later. Neurophysiology demonstrated marked deterioration from previous studies. Sural nerve biopsy disclosed a vasculitic process superimposed on inactive lepromatous leprosy. Immunocytochemical stains for mycobacterial antigen showed deposits within nerve and vessel...

The effect of Mycobacterium /eprae was studied on mitogen, PHA and ant igen, PPO-induced leucocyte migrat ion inhibit ion in 44 leprosy patients and 1 3 healthy controls using the leucocyte migrat ion inh ibi tion test . While M. /eprae decreased the PHA-generated inhibit ion of migrat ion of leucocytes in tuberculoid patients and healthy i ndividuals , i t enhanced the inh ibi tory effect on t...

Although knowledge of the symptomatology of leprosy is very complete, we believe it of interest to describe the clinical picture presented by lepromatous leprosy in Costa Rica, with respect to the characteristics of its cutaneous and visceral manifestations. At the outset it is to be said that the 177 cases of leprosy seen in Costa Rica from 1945 to the end of 1947 were classified as follows: l...

About 1,200 million viable lymphocytes from normal but lepromin- and tuberculin-positive human beings were transfused in four patients of lepromatous and one of tuberculoid leprosy three times at monthly intervals. Three patients of lepromatous leprosy suffered from erythema modosum, whereas the other two developed severe reaction whenever put on the smallest dose of dapsone. In one patient of ...

The immune response in leprosy forms a spectrum with lepromatous leprosy patients exhibiting specific unresponsiveness to antigens of Mycobacterium leprae. This unresponsiveness is thought to be related to the prevalence of T8-positive lymphocyte in these lepromatous lesions. To analyze the immunoregulatory function of these T8 cells, we developed simple procedures to extract lymphocytes from s...

Human peripheral blood mononuclear cell proliferation induced by Mycobacterium leprae could be inhibited by the suppressor factor in the lysate of the macrophages of lepromatous leprosy patients. Macrophages from normal subjects and tuberculoid patients did not show production of a suppressor factor. Inhibition occurred only when the factor was present in the initial stages of lymphocyte cultur...