[Cytotoxic activity of blood serum in borderline conditions]

A study was made of cytotoxic activity of blood serum from 118 patients with borderline neuropsychic disorders (neurotic depression, neurosis, psychopathy, pathologic development of the personality on the basis of organic injury to the brain). Material of 114 mentally and somatically healthy donors served as control. Balb mouse thymocytes and organ culture of the rat brain were employed as test objects. ++Anti-thymus activity (ATA) was measured according to the cytotoxic index, whereas neurotoxic activity (NTA) by inhibition of 3H-cholesterol incorporation. The patients and donors groups differed by distribution of persons with high and low values of NTA and ATA. However, according to the mean level of blood serum cytotoxic activity such a difference was revealed only in respect to NTA. The determined parameters are related in a different way to the patient's age and similarly to the disease standing. The intensity of ATA and NTA was different in different nosological subgroups. An interrelationship was established between the clinical and biological dynamics, supporting a possibility of the use of the given tests as predictors of the therapeutic efficacy and the depth of homeostasis derangement.