CMI response of tuberculosis patients and volunteers to mitogens and mycobacterial antigens by LTT

Various mechanisms have been proposed in the past to explain the inability of the body’s cell mediated immunity (CMI) to cope with the infecting organism in myco bacterial disease such as leprosy. They include short lived suppressor cells, n-2 (IL2) defect and Prostaglandin mediated suppression1,2,3. In leprosy hanisms have been studied using the lymphocyte transformation test (LTT) to elucidate CMI in vitro. The present study was designed to study the regulation of CMI in tuberculosis patients and normal individuals with regard to induction, expression, inhibition and modulation due to prior exposure to environmental mycobacteria