EFFECT OF TONSILLECTOMY ON SALIVARY IgA

Human tonsi Is act as fi 1 tere at the beginning of bothrespiratory and digestive system.Human tonsi Is are known to be immunologically reactivelymphoid tissue which manifests specific antibody and Band Tcells activity in response to a variety of antigens. carryingout the functions of humoral and cellular immunity. Thetonsils contain many cells, committed to antibody formation.which can be shown to contain irnmunoglobulins of the mainclasses: IgG, IgA. IgM. The palatine tonsils release t he i rantibodies locally as well as the general pool. The impact ofthe microbiological environment on the developing lymphoidtissues of the tonsi Is resul ts r n one of the most commonsurgical procedures in childhood. the removal of the tonsils.Tonsillectomy has become such a popular operation, so widelyused and so often misused. The question whether the removalof the tonsils might compromise the local immunologicfunctions of the host or not, is the focus of long standingcontroversy.In this work, the levels of secretorey IgA in saliva weredetermined in fifty patients with chronic tonsillitis. Theimmunoglobulin A was estimated before and one month after theoperation. The immunoglobulin estimations were carried out bysingle radial immunodiffusion technique. Seven normalsubjects estimated as a control. Our resul ts showed