Intralesional autotherapy of cutaneous leishmaniasis with buffy coat cells: cytological findings

The skin lesions of five patient volunteers with dry-type cutaneous leishmaniasis were treated by intralesional injection of auto-leukocytes prepared from buffy coat of the patient's own blood. Giemsa stained, air-dried cytological smear preparations were prepared from scrapings taken from the margins of the lesions. The cellular interaction between the organism and the inflammatory response of the host was studied. All lesions showed clinical evidence of regression. The cytological findings suggested progressive degradation of the Leishman donovan (LD) bodies within the parasitophorous vacuoles of the activated macrophages. The parasiticidal effect appeared to be induced by synergistic action of the injected neutrophils and lymphocytes. Due to lack of placebo controls in this study the possibility that, healing might not be related to therapy can not be excluded. This study illustrates the potential for intralesional autotherapy with buffy coat in dry-type cutaneous leishmaniasis.