Immunogenicity characteristics of a microorganism population from the pathological foci in chronic inflammatory diseases of the upper respiratory tracts

: The staphylococcal population isolated from the pathologic focus in patients with chronic infectious inflammatory diseases of the upper respiratory tract has been found to be heterogeneous in immune response it induces in the body. The action of immune serum in vivo and in vitro leads rather quickly to quantitative changes in the surface antigenic structures of microbial cells, disappearing in the absence of contact with antibodies. The data obtained in this study indicate that the immunogenicity of microbes easily changes under the influence of immune response, which permits them to evade the immunologic control. It is quite probable that such processes play an essential role in the formation of chronic inflammatory diseases.