HLA antigens in donovanosis (granuloma inguinale).

OBJECTIVE: To compare the frequencies of HLA antigens in patients with donovanosis and in controls. DESIGN: HLA Class I, Class II and DQ antigens were detected in patients with genital ulceration caused by donovanosis and in a control group. SETTING: City Health STD Clinic, King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban, South Africa. Participants--Sixty (47 men, 13 women) patients with donovanosis. RESULTS: HLA B57 was detected in nine of 60 (15%) with donovanosis and 75 of 1478 (5.1%) controls (RR = 3.3 chi 2 = 11.0, p = 0.001, p corrected = 0.026). CONCLUSIONS: A possible link between donovanosis and HLA B57 could be explained by coexisting alleles or immune response genes in linkage disequilibrium altering disease susceptibility.

Lymphocyte subpopulations in donovanosis assessed by monoclonal antibodies and immunoglobulins.

The haematological profile and peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations of 36 patients with donovanosis were estimated by an indirect immunofluorescence technique using monoclonal antibodies. Concentrations of serum immunoglobulins (IgM, IgG, and IgA) were also estimated. The total leucocyte and lymphocyte counts were generally raised, as were total T lymphocyte, T4, and T8 counts. Patients with the hypertrophic variant, however, had decreased numbers of T lymphocytes and T8 cells and increased B cells and IgG. B lymphocyte counts and IgM and IgG concentrations were raised generally.

[Epidemiology and pathogenesis of donovanosis]. / Reflexões sobre a epidemiologia e patogenia da donovanose.

Thirty three cases of donovanosis have been observed at the Dermatology Department of Cayenne's Hospital between 1970 and 1982, only in black people. The high frequency of rectal lesions of passive homosexual patients and the vagina contamination in women without sexual intercourse postulate for the intestinal reservoir of the bacteria, and the possibility of auto-inoculation. There is probably a cellular immune deficit. Donovanosis is often associated with other diseases, and in our practice in French Guyana, with leprosy. The skin of the genitalia is the most frequently infected, the mucosa generally resistant. The intracellular life of the "Donovan bodies" "Calymmatobacterium granulomatosis"--in the cytoplasm of large mononuclear cells seems an argument for an anergic disease.

Simplified microimmunofluorescence test with trachoma-lymphogranuloma venereum (Chlamydia trachomatis) antigens for use as a screening test for antibody.

A simplified microimmunofluorescence test with trachoma-lymphogranuloma venereum (Chlamydia trachomatis) antigens has been devised as a screening test for antibody in human sera. The test differs from our standard procedure by amalgamating 15 different immunotypes into nine antigen pools, by using only three serum dilutions, and by dropping use of duplicate slides. The screening test could be performed on at least six times as many sera as the standard test for a given unit of effort. It was shown to have a sensitivity equal to the standard test and an ability to determine specific immunotype on the basis of antibody pattern (72%) only slightly reduced from the standard test (84%). The screening test was carried out on 876 patients from different population groups in the Seattle area. The tests showed that antibody was present frequently in persons attending venereal disease clinics (60%) and commonly (25%) in a group of adults without venereal disease. Nine percent of children under 15 years of age tested had antibody; the significance of this finding is unknown.

Thymidine labelling studies in a transmissible venereal tumour of the dog.

The cell population kinetics of the transmissible venereal tumour of the dog was studied at two different stages of tumour growth using the labelled mitoses technique. At the first stage the tumours were growing with a doubling time of about 4 days; at the second stage their growth rate was limited, probably by an immune reaction on the part of the host, to a doubling time greater than 20 days.Labelling of the tumour cells was found to be extremely heterogeneous throughout the tumour. Mitotic figures, however, were present in well labelled as well as in poorly labelled fields, suggesting that thymidine did not reach all regions of the tumour nodules. The data were therefore analysed assuming that the cells in well labelled areas were representative of the total cell population in the neoplasm. The timing of the cell cycle was found to be similar in the rapidly growing tumours and in those growing more slowly. It is concluded that the slowing of growth was due to a considerable increase in the rate of cell loss as a result of the immune reaction.