Inoculation Test with Human Leprous Material into the Testis of Mice Previously Injected with Sodium Iodine (¹³¹I)

The thyroid tissue becomes destroyed in the mice previously injected with sodium iodine (131I), this destruction causes the body temperature to fall. Leprous bacilli were injected into the above treated mice and then the multiplication process of the bacilli were examined.The mice were injected subcutaneously in the back with sodium iodine, 50μc per each animal. Approximately a month later human leprous material was injected. At this juncture the average body temperature of the mice was caused to fall about 1°C in contrast with the average body temperature of the control animals. It is generally recognized that the lowering of body temperature is related to the destruction of thyroid tissue. Into the testes of these mice human leprous material designated LL 11, 21, 22, 23 were injected. This leprous material was emulsified and diluted. The number of bacilli injected were from 15, 000 to 40, 000 per one mouse. In this dilution, of course, small bacterial groups were found. The harvests of acid-fast bacilli in these testes were examined microscopically in every 16 months after the injection.Retults: Up to 6 and 8 months after the injection of the leprous material into the testes of mice injected with sodium iodine, and the control animals (that is having no sodium iodine), acid-fast bacilli were found both scattered or gathered extracellularly (+s); small groups of bacilli were sometimes found. Up to 10 and 16 months after injection into treated mice, the cells with acid-fast bacilli were found to be abundant, thus forming the socalled globi (+G), which were found often in the capsel of the testis by the histological examination. The round form of globi were not found in this experiment, but the spindle forms of globi were observed. The acid-fast bacilli in the globi changed into segmented forms 16 months later.From these results, tite can be inferred that the natural resistance of mice injected with sodium iodine is less than in the control mice. It was considered that resistance of the reticuloendothelial system (RES) had been diminished by the sodium iodine injection.