Lymphocytotoxic antibodies & immunity in pulmonary tuberculosis.

To understand whether the presence of cold reactive lymphocytotoxic antibodies (LCA) (reactive at 15 degrees C) in the system has any effect on immunity to tuberculosis lymphocytotoxic antibodies to adherent cells (enriched-B cells) and non-adherent cells were studied in active-TB (n = 42) and inactive-TB (cured) patients (n = 49) and healthy controls (n = 32). The plasma samples of inactive-TB patients showed higher percentage of positivity for lymphocytotoxic antibodies (36.7%) than the active-TB patients (21.4%) and control subjects (18.8%). No significant difference on antibody and lymphocyte response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture filtrate antigens was observed between LCA positive and LCA negative active-TB patients and normal healthy controls. Further, determination of HLA-DR phenotype of the patients and control subjects showed that individuals positive for lymphocytotoxic antibodies were more among HLA-DR2 positive and DR7 positive active-TB patients and control subjects than non-DR2 and non-DR7 subjects. The present study suggests that the cold reactive lymphocytotoxic antibodies may be against B-lymphocytes and persistent for a longer time. HLA-DR2 and -DR7 may be associated with the occurrence of LCA activity. Further, the presence of LCA has no immunoregulatory role on immunity to tuberculosis.