[Analysis of peripheral lymphocyte subsets and changes due to erythromycin therapy in patients with diffuse...

It is well known that patients with diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB) have various immunological abnormalities. The authors evaluated the peripheral lymphocyte subsets using two-color analysis by FACS. Convening percentages of activated CD3+, CD8+, and CD4+ cells in DPB patients, all, especially that of CD8+ cell, were greater in number before therapy compared to healthy controls. After erythromycin therapy, all three parameters decreased in all patients. Therapy with other antibiotics did not obtain any effects. These results suggested that patients with DPB had some immunological hyperreactivity and that erythromycin was effective in these patients by suppressing this activity. From these results, together with the fact that DPB is a type of sino-bronchial syndrome, the possible pathogenesis of DPB was thought to be related to some immunological defect and hyperreactivity in the respiratory system.