The morphofunctional changes in the Langerhans cells of the human epidermis in inflammatory and cancerous diseases

Using ATPase reaction Langerhans cells were studied in human epidermis obtained from healthy volunteers, corpses of people who died from trauma and were autopsied during first 3 postmortem hrs and patients operated for inflammatory and oncological diseases of different localization. The extent of Langerhans cells alteration was shown to correlate directly with the severeness of the disease the patients has been operated for. Least changes of Langerhans cells developed in people operated for hernia of the anterior abdominal wall while most pronounced changes were found in those operated for stomach cancer of IV stage. The studying of Langerhans cells may be used in clinical practice for evaluation of efficiency of the treatment and in prognostic purposes.