MECHANISMS OF DEFECTIVE DELAYED CUTANEOUS HYPERSENSITIVITY IN CHILDREN WITH PROTEIN-CALORIE MALNUTRITION

Abstract

The three principal components of the delayed cutaneous-hypersensitivity response in children with protein-calorie malnutrition (P.C.M.) were evaluated with the contact allergen and skin irritant dinitrofluorobenzene (D.N.F.B.) and with Candida albicans skin-test antigen. D.N.F.B. indicated that 60-80% of P.C.M. patients on admission had malfunction of both their afferent limb and their cutaneous inflammatory response. Two patients with intact inflammatory responses to D.N.F.B. on admission, but with negative candida skin tests, later displayed positive candida skin tests, suggesting that the efferent limb was defective on admission. Except for these two patients, the impaired inflammatory reaction precluded independent evaluation of the efferent limb in vivo. The components of the delayed cutaneous-hypersensitivity reaction were intact in most patients after nutritional recovery, 1-2 months later. © 1973.