Experimental Studies on Nutrition in Tuberculosis. The Role of Protein in Resistance to Tuberculosis. ∗,†

Abstract

Summary

The results of Experiment II were like those of Experiment I, the chief difference being that the infection was better regulated, and variations within the 3 protein groups were more characteristic. Tuberculosis was less extensive and life was much longer in the rats on a 40% protein diet than in the other 2 groups, and the degree of localization of the disease was better. The number of bacilli in lesions was smaller in the 40% series and the extent of pneumonia was less. Corresponding with the lesser extent of pneumonia there was less dissemination of tuberculous lesions. A characteristic feature of the long-lived animals was a progressive change in the cellular type of reaction from an early infiltration of mononuclears with little cytoplasm to a stage of consolidation with epithelioid cells and finally to a “regressive” type of mononuclear reaction in which lesions decreased in size, epithelioid cells were few and mononuclears with little cytoplasm predominated.