[Use of lectins in histochemical examination of microglia of the human brain in bacterial meningoencephalitis].

The clinicoimmunological characteristics of three persons who died from bacterial meningoencephalitis is given. Appreciable immunodeficiency was recorded in patients with the grave disease course. The cerebral microglia of the same dead persons were subjected to a lectin histochemical examination. At the height of the disease the microglia proliferate, concentrate around the vessels, with their vascular pedunculi being swollen; microgliocytes with long processes arise. As the disease progresses, the microglia undergo irreversible changes characterized by the deformation and destruction of microgliocytes. Peanut lectin did not mark the microglia, indirectly negating its phagocytic function. In view of the data obtained it is suggested that drugs which potentiate the compensatory and adaptive reactions of the microglia and reduce the swelling of their vascular pedunculi be more widely used in patients afflicted with bacterial meningoencephalitis.