Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), due to Leishmania major, is endemic in different parts of Iran and has long been recognized in most provinces of Iran. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of childhood leishmaniasis in 3 areas at the southeast of Kashan. A descriptive study was carried out on all children referred to central laboratories during a 3-year period. Initial information including age, sex, sites of ulcer on the body, number of lesions, address, and the place of the disease was obtained. The study gathered 117 children, and the results showed a prevalence of 7.2% in patients with lesions among the population and 4.2% of people displayed lesion and scar. The ages of subjects were from 6 to 15 years (average 9.75 years). The boy: girl ratio was 1.2. All of our patients lived in an endemic area. The face was affected in 47.0% of cases. The encountered forms of leishmaniasis are as follows: papulonodular 27.4%, ulcer 60.7%, sporotrichoid 6%, impetiginous 2.5%, and erysipeloid 3.4%. Treatment with intramuscular meglumine antimoniate 20-30 mg/kg/day was done for 93 patients. Meglumine antimoniate treatment was tolerated with no side effects. All leishmaniasis lesions healed within an average period of 2-14 months. Hyperpigmented scars were formed in 25.6% of the patients, atrophic scars in 4.3%, and hypopigmented scars were in 3.4%, respectively. The findings of this study indicate increased prevalence of CL in the villages at the area of Kashan and Aran-Bidgol. The clinical finding patterns belonged to different endemic strains of L. major in Isfahan, which indicates the possible transmission of infection from Isfahan to this area.
Prevalence ; Organometallic Compounds/therapeutic use ; Meglumine/therapeutic use ; Male ; Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous/drug therapy/epidemiology/parasitology/physiopathology ; *Leishmania major/drug effects/pathogenicity ; Iran ; Humans ; Female ; *Endemic Diseases ; Child ; Antiprotozoal Agents/therapeutic use ; Animals ; Adolescent

Protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania cause a number of important human diseases. One of the key determinants of parasite infectivity and survival is the surface glycoconjugate lipophosphoglycan (LPG). In addition, LPG is shown to be useful as a transmission blocking vaccine. Since culture supernatant of parasite promastigotes is a good source of LPG, we made attempts to characterize functions of the culture supernatant, and membrane LPG isolated from metacyclic promastigotes of Leishmania major. The purification scheme included anion-exchange chromatography, hydrophobic interaction chromatography and cold methanol precipitation. The purity of supernatant LPG (sLPG) and membrane LPG (mLPG) was determined by SDS-PAGE and thin layer chromatography. The effect of mLPG and sLPG on nitric oxide (NO) production by murine macrophages cell line (J774.1A) was studied. Both sLPG and mLPG induced NO production in a dose dependent manner but sLPG induced significantly higher amount of NO than mLPG. Our results show that sLPG is able to promote NO production by murine macrophages.
Nitric Oxide/analysis/*biosynthesis ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Mice ; Macrophages/*drug effects/metabolism/parasitology ; Leishmania major/chemistry/pathogenicity/*physiology ; Glycosphingolipids/isolation & purification/*pharmacology ; Endotoxins/analysis ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Culture Media ; Chromatography, Thin Layer/methods ; Cell Membrane/chemistry ; Cell Line ; Animals