T lymphocyte subsets in leprosy. A study of 24 Egyptian patients.

Phenotypic analysis was done on 24 Egyptian leprosy patients and 11 healthy controls. The type of leprosy, duration of disease at the time of testing, and age were found to affect T cell subset distribution. As compared with controls, neural leprosy tended to have a decreased total T cell percentage, borderline leprosy an increased T suppressor cell percentage, and reactional borderline leprosy an increased T helper/suppressor ratio. Patients with the disease for less than 1 year had a higher mean percentage of T suppressor cells and a lower mean T helper/suppressor ratio than patients with leprosy for more than 1 year. The same was true in older (50-70 years old) versus younger (12-41 years old) patients.