Toxocara antigen and mitogen-induced lymphocyte blastogenesis for diagnosis of visceral larva migrans: clinical and experimental findings in macaques and human beings.

Peripheral lymphocytes from macaques inoculated with Toxocara canis and from children with serologically confirmed visceral larva migrans (VLM) were assayed for blastogenic responses using Toxocara antigen and standard mitogens. Macaques were given single or multiple larval infections. Lymphocyte responses of inoculated macaques were compared with responses from noninoculated macaques. Similarly, lymphocyte responses from 2 serologically confirmed human Toxocara VLM patients were compared with that of 2 healthy human controls. Mitogen responses of the macaques with multiple infections were higher than those with single infections or no infection, but these differences were not significant. Statistically greater (P less than 0.05) Toxocara antigen-induced blastogenesis was observed for both groups of inoculated macaques and for each VLM patient. However, the degree of stimulation was low.