Changes in Immunological Parameters of the Retired Workers of the Okunojima Poison Gas Factory with Administration of BCG or Nocardia Rubra Cell Wall Skeleton

An immunopotentiator, BCG or Nocardia rubra cell wall skeleton, was injected to the retired workers of the Okunojima poison gas factory in order to study prophylactic approaches to the cancer and the various immunological parameters were followed.

1) γ-globulin and IgG whose pre-treatment levels were abnormally high tended to approach the normal levels.

2) α1-AT tended to increase and α1-AG tended to decrease in Group C. α2-HS tended to decrease in Group A, and C3 tended to increase in Group A.

3) Tuberculin reaction kept positive in 77.9% of the subjects studied, and it did negative in 5.2%, while 13.0% of them had a positive conversion, and 3.9% showed a negative conversion.

4) The response of lymphocytes to PHA tended to increase in all three groups, but that to PWM did not show any significant changes.

5) NK cell activity and ADCC activity showed a transient increase 2 weeks after CWS injection, and their activities returned to preinjection levels after 3 months.