Morphological and functional alterations of the blood cell system of guinea pigs after treatment with cytostatic agents, prednisolone and phenylbutazone

Abstract

Guinea pigs, having developed cutaneous tuberculin hypersensitivity after immunization with BCG were treated for 10 days by intraperitoneal injections of moderately toxic doses of cyclophosphamide, triethylene melamine, ibenzmethyzin, 6-MP, amethopterin (6 injections in 13 days), actinomycin C, vinblastine, podophyllin derivative, prednisolone and phenylbutazone. After 5 days of treatment tuberculin reaction was suppressed in most animals by 6-MP, whereas the other substances had only moderate or no effect. After 10 days of treatment, however, tuberculin reactions were markedly diminished by nearly all applied substances with exception of vinblastine, TEM and amethopterin, which caused only weak effects. Inspite of nearly complete inhibition of the tuberculin reaction at the end of treatment with 6-MP and ibenzmethyzin a state of tolerance never developed. There was a correlation between the intensity of tuberculin reaction and the number of small lymphocytes with a pale cytoplasm in the blood. An unspecific inflammation, Rebuck's skin window (like the tuberculin reaction characterized by an intensive mononuclear cell infiltration), caused simultaneously with the tuberculin reaction immediately after the period of treatment was more or less markedly diminished by 6-MP, TEM, cyclophosphamide, ibenzmethyzin, podophyllin derivative and actinomycin. The notably good inhibition of an immunological reaction of the delayed type by a large scale of different substances in our experiments is explained by an immunosuppressive effect of all and an anti-inflammatory effect of some substances and by some kind of immunoparalysis caused by frequent injections of antigen.