[Cellular immunity factors in dysentery]

Cellular immune response was studied in 89 adult patients suffering from various clinical forms of acute dysentery, with the use of the lymphocyte blast-cell transformation reaction under the action of a specific antigen (dysenterin) and a nonspecific mitogen (phitohemagglutinin). Functional value of T-lymphocytes proved to be retained in patients with acute dysentery; there was also lymphocyte stimulation by a specific antigen in patients with moderately severe and severe forms of dysentery during the first week of the disease. Specificity of blast-cell transformation of sensitized lymphocytes under the action of dysenterin was shown. Patients with a high percentage of the lymphocyte blast forms displayed a more rapid positive progress of the main clinical indices at the height of the disease than analogous patients with a low blast percentage in the blood. The expediency of using the blast-cell transformation reaction for differential diagnosis and prognosis of moderately severe and severe forms of acute dysentery is discussed.