Study of Anti-Galactocerebroside and Anti-Sulfatide Antibodies in Leprosy

Ahn, Byung Jun; Suh, Hun Suk; Kim, Sang Won

Abstract

Peripheral nerve damage in leprosy would be related to the local cell-mediated immune response to mycobacterial antigens and, presumedly, metabolic and biochemical changes of Schwann cell or circulating demyelinating factors and otherwise, autoimmune process would be involved. The neuralipid composing of cholesterol, ethanolamine glycerophosphatide, sphingomyelin, galactocerebroside(GalC), ethanolamine plasmalogen, serine and choline glycerophophatide, sulfatide are abundant in the myelin and have immunogenicity. Especially, GalC and sulfatide are known to play an important role in myelin function and its stability. The study was undertaken to detect the titers of anti-GalC and anti-sulfatide antibodies for the neural destruction mechanism of leprosy. Subjects tested were 53 leprosy patients with polar type consisting of 25 in tuberculoid leprosy(TT) and 28 in lepromatous leprosy(LL). The titeration of the antibody was done in the sera of patients and controls by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). The results obtained were as follows ; 1. The detection rate of anti-GalC antibody was in 13(24.5%) of the 53 leprosy patients compared with 3(13.0%) of the 23 normal controls. Among the leprosy patients, there was 8(32.0%) in TT and 5(17.9%) in LL. 2. The detection rate of anti-sulfatide antibody was in 24(45.3%) of leprosy patients compared with 7(26.1%) of normal controls. Both types showed almost same rate of 46.4% and 44.0%, respectively. 3. Mean titer of anti-GalC antibody was 18.9+/-17.0EU/ml in leprosy patients and 12.8+/-8.8EU/ml in normal controls, with statistically insignificant level(p>0.05, one-way ANOVA). Among the leprosy patients, mean titer was 24.7+/-20.9EU/ml in TT and 13.8+/-10.5EU/ml in LL, with significance in TT(p<0.05). 4. Mean titer of anti-sulfatide antibody was 25.3+/-14.5EU/ml in leprosy patients and 18.9+/-13.8EU/ml in normal controls(p>0.05). Among the leprosy patients, mean titer was 26.0+/-15.4EU/ml in TT and 24.7+/-14.0EU/ml in LL, which was nearly same quantities in both types. 5. Examinations using Pearson correlation analysis revealed that the association between anti-GalC and anti-sulfatide antibodies was non-specific in LL(r=0.09) and TT(r=0.04). The analysis between duration of illness and anti-GalC antibody was decreasing correlation(r=-0.89, p<0.05) in LL, but slightly increasing correlation in TT(r=0.44, p>0.05). In comparison with anti-sulfatide antibody and duration, LL was higher in 41-50 years, while being higher in 31-40 years in TT, but correlation in both types could not be found(r=0.08, -0.06) In conclusion, the anti-GalC and anti-sulfatide antibodies seemed to be related with nerve damage. Hereafter we think that more study for other neural lipid should be investigated