[Humoral immunity factors in the pathogenesis of recurrence in chronic herpetic infection]

A comparative study of various factors of humoral immunity in human chronic herpes stomatitis (CHS) in periods of relapses and remission of the infection showed the exacerbations of the disease to occur in the presence of complement-fixing (CF) and virus-neutralizing (VN) antibodies in the blood serum the titres of which moderately rose with the progress of the infection. A relapse of the disease occurs during marked decline in the content of secretory IgA and true secretory Sc-IgA, serum and secretory IgG, low levels of serum interferon, and a small rise in titres of 19S specific CF antibodies. Remission comes as these values become normal. Although specific immunological changes do occur in CHS, they are not very marked, whereas the factors of nonspecific host resistance change considerably in close correlation with the periods of relapse and remission of the infection.