Cellular content of dermal lesions in pregnant and non-pregnant lepromatous leprosy patients: an immuno-histological study

ABSTRACT

The role of both lepromatous leprosy [LL] and pregnancy on CMI expressed through sub-populations of T lymphocytes was studied in this work. Fifteen females, all suffering of LL, of which three were pregnant, were selected for this study. Skin biopsies were taken and tissue sections were immunohistologically stained with OKT 4 and OKT 8 monoclonal antibodies for the demonstration of helper/inducer and suppressor/cytotoxic T lymphocytes respectively in the lepromatous infiltrate. OKT 8 + cells predominated in both pregnant and non- pregnant cases and largely outnumbered the OKT 4 + cells, however, the increase in suppressor cells was much pronounced in the pregnant cases. The mean T helper/T suppressor ratio of the nonpregnant lepromatous cases was 0.48 +/- 0.07, whereas in all the three pregnant cases the T helper/T suppressor ratio was below 0.2. It can be concluded that pregnancy as an overburden on CMI has helped to aggravate the T cell imbalances resulting in much more impairment of CMI