Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 22. (Budapest, 1989)

times the average body mass of the five control rats was 170, 197 and 225 g, respectively, that is they showed a 15.8% and 32.3% body mass gain by week 4 and week 7, respectively. P

. carinii was consistently demonstrated in Impression smears and histological preparations made of the lungs of rats in which immunosuppression was induced (Figs 1 and 2). Numerous P. carinii organisms are seen in the figures at different magnifications. Histological examination of the spleen of the treated animals revealed atrophy of the Malpighian corpuscles and lymphoid cell depletion in the lymph nodes, reflecting immunosuppression (Fig. 3). DISCUSSION Both the humoral and the cell-mediated immune response play a role in the protection against infections caused by microorganisms. Studying the humoral immune response of children with deficiency of cell-mediated immunity, Danish researchers found that P. ca rinii IgM antibodies protect the infants against P. carinii pneumonia. They extended their studies to patients affected with AIDS. In AIDS patients in which P. carinii was present as concomitant infection, decreased specific IgM antibody titres were found or these antibodies were completely absent. They hope that studies on a larger patient material will confirm their hypothesis that the determination of P. carinii IgM antibodies in patients infected by HIV may have significance in predicting of the development of P. carinii pneumonia (HOFMAN et al. 1988). In the past few years the possibilities of treating P. carinii pneumonia have improved. The drugs used earlier are either folate antagonists (trimethoprim-sulfonamide, dapson-trimethoprim, trimethrexate) or enzyme inhibitors (pentamidine, difluoromethyl ornithine, clindamycine-primaquine)

, and cause severe side effects such as neutropenia and thrombopenia (BYGBIERG et al. 1988; KOVÁCS et al. 1988; WALZER et al. 1988). Adverse reactions are also common (LOESCHER et al. 1987). Recent observations suggest that the side effects of systemic pentamidine can be diminished by administering the drug as aerosol, by inhalation (MEYER and DIETRICH 1989; RODRIGUEZ, et al.1989). However, with regard to the above facts, there still Is a demand on drugs and therapeutic procedures having less side effects. Besides the immunobiological and therapeutic aspects, there are numerous aother unanswered questions concerning P. carinii and the pneumonia caused by it. These questions can be answered by further experiments. The rat model successfully reproduced by us can serve as a basis for this experimental work. JANKÓ M., BÁNHEGYI D. és RATZ F.: Patkány modell Pneumocystis carinii kimutatásának tanulmányozására Az újszülöttek pneumoniáját okozó Pneumocystis carinii (Delanoë, 1912) az utóbbi években az AIDS-hez társult opportunista fertőzésként az érdeklődés előterébe került. Szerzők patkányokban mesterséges úton P. carinii fertőzést hoztak létre. A modell kísérlet alkalmas a protozoon által okozott megbetegedés még nyitott kérdéseinek tanulmányozására.