IMMUNOPATHOLOGY OF AUTOLEUKOCYTIC THERAPY OF CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS

This is a report of immunopathological study of our previous work on autobuffy-coat therapy of dry-type cutaneous leishmaniasis, which focused on cytological activation of macrophages to eradicate engulfed Leishman bodies by the synergistic effects of lymphocytes, neutrophils, and inactive monocytes. We, again, present a case report of skin biopsies which were stained immunohistochemically before and during autobuffy-coat therapy. The results revealed increased CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes, CD1a Langerhans cells, interferon gamma, and TNF-alpha-producing cells during therapy, but IL-10, IL-4, and TGF-beta-positive immunostained cells were decreased. We conclude that this kind of therapy induces a Th1-like and suppresses a Th2-like response in active lesions of dry-type cutaneous leishmaniasis accompanied by overactivity of the neutrophils and activated histiocytes to eradicate the engulfed Leishmania amastigotes.