[Detection of mycoplasma antigens and immune complexes in sera of the children with bronchial asthma].

The study was targeted at revealing Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M.p.) and Mycoplasma hominis (M.h.) antigens in blood samples of children with bronchial asthma (BA),both in a free state and those included in circulating immune complexes (CIC). The mycoplasma antigens of one or both species have been detected in one third out of 62 patients with BA. In this group of patients the frequency of detection of specific antibodies twice exceeded that of mycoplasma antigens. Testing paired blood samples of children with BA (n=26) showed, that at receipt in a hospital and a month after primary examination the mycoplasma antigens were detected in 16 and 12 patients, respectively, the association of M.p. and M.h. antigens being more frequent. Data on distribution of antibodies according to immunoglobulin classes testify that basically two (M, G), or four (M, G, A, E) classes were registered in children, the M class antibodies in high percentage of cases (from 36.6 up to 50.0%)being detected in every term of examination. These data indirectly testify that the antigens can be partly included in the CIC structure. The level of the total CIC content in BA children's blood sera one month after hospitalization twice exceeded the value detected at primary examination. Three months later later this parameter decreased not reaching the control value. The differential analysis of the precipitated CIC within the whole period of examination showed that mycoplasma antigens were present in the CIC structure in 87.4 - 65.0% of cases. The data obtained precondition future studies on the role of mycoplasma and M.p. and M.h. antigens included in the CIC in the pathogenesis of BA.