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I NTERNATIONAL JO U RNAL OF LEPROSV
Secretion of Blood Group-specific Substances in the
Saliva of leprosy Patients'
v.
N. Sehgal and B. Dube 2
Several poorly understood factors influence the transmission of leprosy and clinical
manifes tations of this disease. Genetic factors have been considered significant ('" G),
and were recentl y the subject of discussion
4). Studies
at an international conference
on the occurrence of leprosy in different
ABO groups have indicated an association b etween leprosy and the blood
3. 7), although there are conflictgroups
ing reports (8. 9) .
The present investi gation of leprous p atients was undertaken to study the secretion
of blood group-specific substance in saliva,
a property th at is also genetically determined.
e·
e·
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Two hundred and twelve leprosy patients
attending the dermatologic outpatient department of Sir Sunderlal Hospital and
leprosaria in Varanasi District were studied.
The diagnosis of leprosy w as made b y
clinical observation , and confirmed , in
questionable cases, b y histopathologic examination. Forty-two of the patients had
lepromatous leprosy. The remainder were
classified as : tuberculoid, 118; neuritic, 38;
borderline, 6; and maculoanesthetic,8. Normal control cases were comprised of medical students, hospital personnel, and p atients with minor skin ailments of infective
nature.
The secretion of blood group-specific
substance was tested b y the method described b y Stratton and Renton (8). SamlR ece ived for pu bli ca ti on 13 Feb ru ary 1907.
"V. N. Se hgal. M.D .. Lec turer in De rm atology
a nd B. Du be. M .D . R eader in P a th ology. from th e
Sec tions of Derm a tology and })a lh ology. College of
M edi cal Scie nces. Bana ras Hin d u U n iversi ly. Vara ·
nasi 5, Tn dia . P a per rca d at XX Tln d J oin t Annu al
Conference. Assoc iati on of Ph ysic ians of Ind ia, 19
J an uary 1967 . .
pIes of saliva measurin g about 3 ml. were
collected in clean dry test tubes. The tubes
were then boiled in a water bath for about
10 minutes. The cooled specimens of saliva
were centrifuged for half an hour at high
speed . The supernatant was utilized for
inhibition test with anti-A and anti-B sera
on microscopic slides at room temperature
with red blood cells acting as an indicator.
In order to make the test semiquantitative
two dilutions of serum, viz., 1:2 and 1: 8
were used. The sera used gave strong agglutination in the former dilution and a
moderate reaction in the latter.
OBSERVA TIONS
Table 1 shows the distribution of secretors and nonsecretors of blood group-specific substance among 370 norm al controls
and 212 leprosy patients. Of 42 lepromatous patients 76.2 p er cent were observed
to b e secretors and 23.8 per cent non secretors. Statisticall y the difference from
the control group is not significant (chi2 =
0.70, P > 0.30 ). Of 170 patients with non lepromatous leprosy the percentage of secretors and nonsecretors was found to b e
65..3 and 34.7 respecti vely. H ere again the
difference between this distribution and
T ABL E 1. Secretion of blood group -spedjic
substance in the saliva in leprosy patients and
normal controls.
--
Peeretors N onseeretors
T otal - - - - - - - - Re ries studied No. No.
No.
%
%
-- -- - - -- - Normal
370 259 70 .0 111 30 .0
-- -- -- -- - Lepromatous
10 23 .8
42
32 76 .2
Nonlepromatous
170 111 65.3
59 34 .7
-- -- - - -- - Total leprosy
212 143 67.5
69 32 .5
375
Intern ational l ourn al of Leprosy
376
th at in th e normals is not statisticall y signifi cant (chP = 1.19, P > 0.20 ). Th e difference between th e two groups of leprosy
patients, i.e., leproma tOllS and nonl epromatous, is also not signifi cant (chP = 1.36,
P > 0.02). As a whole, also, the distributional difference amon g control and leprosy
pati ents is definitely not significant (ch12
= 0.41, P > 0.50 ) .
DISCUSSION
The ability to secrete blood group-specifi c substance behaves as a simple Mendelian domin ant eharacter determined p y a
gene w hich we may call "S" (secretor ),
and a recessive character determined b y an
allelic nonsecretor gene "s". In th e present
study, thi s genetic sys tem was explored b ecause, to th e authors' knowledge, it has thus
far not b een studi ed in leprosy.
It is sugges ted th a t a comprehensive
stud y of several geneti call y determined
factors as proposed b y Lechat ( .1) might
be more fruitful in the stud y of susceptibility to leprosy.
SUMMARY
In a stud v of the secretion of blood
group-specifi ~ substances in the sali va of
leprosy p atients and normal controls, no
statisticall y signifi cant deviation in the distributi on of secretors and nonsecretors wa ~
found between th e pa tients and the control
population .
RESUMEN
E n un estudio en grupos sanguin eos esp ecificos , de la secreci6n de sustancias en la saliva de
pacien tes con lepra lepromatosa y en con troles
nOl'males, no se encon tr6 un a desviaci6n
estadisticamente significati va en la distribu ci6n
Ie los secretores y no secretores entre los
enfermos y la poblaci6n control ada.
RESUME
On a me ne un e etude sur la secretion d es
substances sp eciJlques des grou pes sanguins
1967
dans Ia salive dc Illal ad es de Ia lepre et de
suj cts temoin s norlll <l Ux. Aucune d (~ v iati o n
statistiqueme nt significa ti ve dans Ia distribution des secreteurs et d es non-secrcteurs n 'a etc
observce entre les malades et ]a p opulation
tcmoin .
Ack now ledgments. The authors are grateful to
Mr. T. S. N . Rao, M.Sc., Statisti cian, for the sta ·
tistica l analys is of d ata. \tVe express our grati tud e also to Dr. 1. M. G upta, M.D ., F.C.C.P .
( U.S .A. ), M.C., Path. ( Lond .) , Professor of
Pathology, and Dr. F. M. Na rielwa la, .F.R .C P.
(l:;:din .), M.R. C .P. ( Lond .), Profcssor of Medicin e, for kindl y providin g the fa ci lities necessa ry for the present investi gation. \Ve are in debted to the medi cal students and the hospital
sta n: who readil y agreed to serve as norm al
controls.
REFERENCES
1. BETGUELl\fAN, B. AnO blood groups and
epid emiology of leprosy. Rev. P aul. Med .
6S ( 1964 ) 80-86.
2. BLUMBERG, n . S. L eprosy research
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( 1965) 739-743 ' ( Part 2)
3. HSUEN, J., THOMAS, E . and JESUDIAN, G.
ABO blood groups and leprosy. L eprosy
Rev. 34 ( 1963) 143-147.
4. LECHAT, M. F . Methodology of geneti c
study in the epidemiology of leprosy.
Intern at. J. L eprosy 33 ( 1965) 744-746
( Part 2).
5. MOHAMED ALI, P . Geneti c inAu ence in
leprosy. Conferen ce, Indi an Association of
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Genetics in leprosy. A study of leprosy in
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L eprosy Rev. 37 ( 1966 ) 221-224.
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