[Tissue immunology in psoriasis. I. Changes in the immunologic mechanism caused by methotrexate]

To evaluate the posibility of detecting immunological alterations in psoriasics after MTX's treatment, lymphocyte culture was used, following Nowell's techniqe with slight modifications. There were no significant differences in blastic response between psoriasic patients and normals. Important variations were not observed in blastogenesis, after three and six weeks of MTX'S treatment, in the group of patients without previous medication. Another group of patients, selected for their therapeutic resistence to the drug employed, was also studied. There were no significant differences between the group sensitive to medication and the control. The values obtained suffered no modification, when treatment was continued, in similar doses, at three and six weeks of starting it. Finally, no alterations were found in the blastic response of those patients who had complete remission of psoriasis, after having been under MTX at least, six months before our work began.