1964 Volume 33 Issue 1 Pages 7-15
In order to examine the influence of tissue components contained in the Mitsuda antigen upon the lepromin reaction, the skin reaction caused by tissue suspension was compared with the Mitsuda's reaction. The tissue suspensions were prepared from the skin of a leprosy patient free from leprosy bacilli or the skin of a healthy person by means of the preparation procedure of the Mitsuda antigen. The results obtained were as follows:
1) The size of reaction to the tissue suspension was compared between the two different sources of antigen material; namely the skin of a leprosy patient free from leprosy bacilli and the skin of a healthy person. No significant difference was observed between them, and this observation denied the possibility that some tissue components might be involved in the Mitsuda's reaction. Therefore, the reaction caused by tissue components can be cosidered as non-specific one unrelated to the essential lepromin reaction provoked by the Mitsuda antigen.
2) With the increment of tissue components in the antigen, the size of skin reaction became larger, particularly in the reaction read at 15 days after the injection of antigen. This observation indicates the need of eliminating the contamination with the tissue components in the Mitsuda antigen to a possible extent.
3) The size of skin reactions caused by the tissue suspension was compared with that of reactions provoked by the Mitsuda antigen through the frequency distribution curves of reaction size. This comparison indicated that the reactions of 9 to 13mm in the size read at 48hrs and the reactions of 3 to 10mm in size at 15 days after the injection of antigen were a mixture of the specific reaction to leprosy bacilli and the non-specific one due to the tissue components. This observation will be the key point for the settlement of the criteria for reading the reaction.
4) Concerning the mode of appearance of the skin reaction caused by the tissue suspensions, there was no difference between the two clinical types of leprosy at 48hrs reading. At 15 days reading, however, the tissue suspension of higher concentration than the Mitsuda antigen induced the skin reactions of larger size in the non-lepromatous type than in the lepromatous type.
From the above results, the criteria for reading the Mitsuda reaction at 15 days after the injection of antigen, particularly, the positivity in the Mitsuda reaction was discussed on the difference between the size of reaction caused by the tissue suspension and that provoked by the Mitsuda antigen.
