[Action of dissolved ozone on mycobacterium tuberculosis and alveolar macrophages in experimental tuberculosis]

Sixty CBA mice were intravenously inoculated with the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT) strains Erdman and 2255 (a polyresistant clinical strain) pretreated with dissolved ozone (experimental groups), a single therapeutical dose. of dissolved ozone being intravenously injected. By 1 month of inoculation, all control mice (MBT-inoculated and ozone-untreated) died and in their organs there were a great deal of MBT both outside and inside the macrophages. No pathogen in its typical form was not found in experimental mice, but there were many granular and L forms, the lung showing a large number of highly vacuolized (foamy) alveolar macrophages (AM). All experimental mice survived by month 5 and their organ examination showed that the pathogen was detectable only inside the macrophages, but they are chiefly unchanged (more elongated and badly stained with aniline dyes). Juvenile forms are prevalent among AM. It should be concluded that the action of dissolved ozone on AM and MBT is heterodirectional.