thymosin and Tuberculosis

Topics: Chemical Phenomena; Chemistry; Humans; In Vitro Techniques; T-Lymphocytes; Thymosin; Tuberculosis; Uremia

Topics: BCG Vaccine; Bone Marrow Transplantation; Female; Humans; Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes; Infant; Sepsis; Staphylococcal Infections; Thymosin; Thymus Gland; Tuberculosis

Of nine inbred murine strains sensitized intravenously with killed lyophilized Candida albicans and challenged 3 weeks later with a C. albicans filtrate, four strains were low responders and five were high responders in the in vivo release of migration inhibitory factor (MIF) and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma). An identical distribution of high- and low-responder strains occurred in response to sensitization with Mycobacterium bovis BCG and subsequent challenge with old tuberculin. Treatment of the murine strains with thymosin fraction 5 prior to sensitization and challenge had different effects: (a) the high-responder strains had a decrease in their release in vivo of the two lymphokines; (b) three of five of the low-responder strains had a striking increase in the in vivo release of MIF and IFN-gamma; and (c) one low-responder strain did not have its response altered. A parallelism existed between the capacity of a murine strain to release the two lymphokines in vivo on stimulation with C. albicans antigens and the capacity of that strain to resist intravenous infection with living C. albicans.

Topics: Animals; Antigens, Bacterial; Antigens, Fungal; Candidiasis; Disease Susceptibility; Female; Immunity, Innate; Interferon-gamma; Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors; Mice; Mice, Inbred AKR; Mice, Inbred C3H; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Inbred CBA; Mice, Inbred DBA; Thymosin; Thymus Hormones; Tuberculosis

Topics: Animals; Cattle; Guinea Pigs; Male; Thymosin; Thymus Extracts; Tuberculosis

Using the 5th fraction of thymosin, it was possible to enhance the capacities of peripheral blood lymphocytes to form rosettes with sheep erythrocytes and to respond to PHA in those cases of cancer or sarcoidosis in which these functions were depressed. Moreover, the 5th thymosin fraction increased the resistance of CBA mice to infection with virulent H37Rv mycobacteria and augmented their ability to acquire delayed hypersensitivity.

Topics: Animals; Humans; Hypersensitivity, Delayed; Immunologic Techniques; In Vitro Techniques; Lung Neoplasms; Lymphocyte Activation; Mice; Sarcoidosis; Thymosin; Thymus Hormones; Tuberculin Test; Tuberculosis