Leukocyte antimicrobial function in patients with leprosy

Abstract

This study indicates that macrophages from patients with lepromatous and tuberculoid leprosy and from normal donors do not differ in their ability to digest heat killed M. leprae in vitro, or in their ability to sustain the viability of M. leprae in tissue culture; that monocytes, macrophages, and polymorphonuclear leukocytes of leprosy patients and controls possess equivalent microbicidal activity against Listeria, E. coli, P. vulgaris, S. aureus, and C. albicans; and that polymorphonuclear leukocytes from patients with lepromatous leprosy iodinate ingested bacteria normally. Whether the basic immune defect leading to the development of lepromatous leprosy resides in the lymphocyte or in the macrophage remains to be determined. Phagocytic cells from patients with either principal form of leprosy function normally in a variety of sophisticated tests of antimicrobial function.