Celiene - anyone - leprosy

[Guest guest]

Anyone know what the accepted standard histological staining is for

Mycobacterium leprae?

Leprosy comes in multiple forms with measurable immunological

differences - the polar types are called lepromatous (sp?) leprosy and

tuberculoid leprosy, AKA paucibacilliary leprosy ( " pauc- " as in

" paucity " , ie very few).

In lepromatous leprosy the organism is just eating you alive (as

happens in advanced pulmonary tuberculosis) whereas in tuberculoid

leprosy the disease is usually kept local, but is not cleared, by a

major inflammatory response. Along with syphilis, this phenomenon is

considered paradigmatic of heavy inflammatory response to few

bacteria. But Mattman ed. 3 has some hints about how the

" paucibacillary " charecterization may rest on certain assumptions

about the staining charecteristics of forms found in tissue, which may

not be supportable.

Some investigators consider this to be the likely nature of lyme, and

Steere has made an explicit comparison to tuberculoid leprosy. We

should find out what the actual basis is for the accepted

understanding of the latter disease, since Mattman doesnt address it

directly, and M. leprae seems to be the one chronic bacterium outside

of the spirochetae that is widely considered capable of causing

extremely disproportionate inflammation.