02230nas a2200301   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653002500055653001100080653002800091653001200119653002400131653002500155653002500180653003100205653003200236653001200268100001100280700001200291700001600303700001200319245010200331856004100433300001100474490000700485520142200492022001401914       1991                            d  c1991 Dec10aBinding, Competitive10aHumans10aImmunoenzyme Techniques10aleprosy10aLeprosy, Borderline10aLeprosy, lepromatous10aLeprosy, Tuberculoid10aReproducibility of Results10aSensitivity and Specificity10aTuftsin1 aKaur J1 aKhare S1 aBhutani L K1 aRao D N00aEnzyme immunoassay of phagocytosis stimulating tetrapeptide "tuftsin" in normal and leprosy sera.  uhttp://ila.ilsl.br/pdfs/v59n4a05.pdf  a576-810 v593 a<p>The serum concentrations of the phagocytosis stimulating the tetrapeptide, tuftsin, were determined by competitive enzyme immunoassay in borderline tuberculoid/tuberculoid (BT/TT, 16 cases), borderline lepromatous/lepromatous (BL/LL, 16 cases), and in healthy controls (20 cases). Using checkerboard titration, 10 ng/well of diphtheria toxoid-p-aminophenylacetyl tuftsin (DTPT) conjugate when incubated with tuftsin antisera at 1:15,000 dilution with a preincubation time of 60 min with the competitor (tuftsin) followed by a further 60-min incubation onto the DTPT-coated wells gave consistent results with a sensitivity of 5 ng/well tuftsin. The mean serum tuftsin concentration was significantly lower in BL/LL patients (134.42 +/- 48.7 ng/ml, p less than 0.01) than in healthy controls (262.86 +/- 59.8 ng/ml), while BT/TT sera (210.94 +/- 75.5 ng/ml) showed slightly decreased levels than did normals, which was not statistically significant. The mean serum IgG levels in BL/LL and BT/TT patients (37.26 +/- 10.99 mg/ml; 28.08 +/- 6.57 mg/ml, respectively) showed significantly (p less than 0.001) higher concentrations than did healthy controls (12.3 +/- 3.6 mg/ml). These observations on the serum concentrations of tuftsin and IgG in leprosy individuals suggest that there is splenic dysfunction in BL/LL patients in terms of the processing of leukokinin to release the free, active molecule tuftsin.</p>
  a0148-916X