[Role of matrix metalloproteinases in the pathogenesis and morphogenesis of fibrocavernous tuberculosis in persons long living in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan].

The archives of surgical material (removed lungs and their parts) and autopsies of 54 patients with fibrocavernous tuberculosis (FCT) who had lived from childhood to 2003 near polluted area and exposed to radiation (the annual radiation dose was higher than 0.1 Rem) were studied. The surgical and autoptic materials from 21 patients with tuberculosis (including 6 patients lived in the Kazakhstan radiation areas and 15 patients lived in Moscow) were used as a control. The morphological features of FCT in the persons who had long lived in the radioactively polluted areas were marked lung destructive and fibrotic changes, a decrease in the detection rate ofgranulomatous inflammation, and a weak local lymphoid infiltration, which may indirectly suggest the low level of cellular immunity upon exposure to ionizing radiation.