@article{7800,
  keywords = {Animals, Cyclosporine, Female, Hypersensitivity, Delayed, Immunity, Cellular, leprosy, Lymphocyte Activation, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Mycobacterium leprae, T-Lymphocytes},
  author = {Tanaka M and Tanaka Y and Kohsaka K},
  title = {Effects of cyclosporin A on bacterial growth and immunological responsiveness in BALB/c mice infected with Mycobacterium leprae.},
  abstract = {<p>When BALB/c mice were infected with Mycobacterium leprae and orally treated 6 times weekly with a dose of 8 mg/kg cyclosporin A (CsA) for 19 months, the number of organisms was slightly higher at 19 months as compared with mice in which the dose of CsA was gradually decreased after 6 months and discontinued at the 8th month (p less than 0.01 for the 15th and 19th months). Lymphocyte blast transformation (LBT) showed that spleen cells from CsA-treated mice 4 weeks after infection with M. leprae and 3 weeks after CsA treatment was stopped responded to the sonicated supernatant of M. leprae suspension (SS), M. leprae (Ml), and concanavalin A (ConA) less than those cells from mice not treated with CsA. This response was dose-dependent. At week 15, 14 weeks after CsA administration was stopped, the LBT response to SS and Ml by cells from M. leprae-infected mice exceeded that of mice without CsA treatment, and the response to ConA in M. leprae-infected mice was less than that in uninfected mice without CsA-treatment. Thus, if CsA was administered, the T-cell functions were suppressed. However, when CsA treatment was discontinued for longer periods, the T-cell function was activated. From these results, we speculate that M. leprae would have the capability of growing more abundantly in mice treated with CsA 100 mg/kg for 1 week every month.</p>
},
  year = {1991},
  journal = {International journal of leprosy and other mycobacterial diseases : official organ of the International Leprosy Association},
  volume = {59},
  pages = {598-604},
  month = {1991 Dec},
  issn = {0148-916X},
  url = {http://ila.ilsl.br/pdfs/v59n4a08.pdf},
  language = {eng},
}