ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AND IMMUNOLOGICAL SIDE-EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT ANTIBIOTICS

Antibiotics, in addition to killing or inhibiting the growth of microo rganisms, may also affect the immune response in many ways. Such effec ts may be clinically relevant especially when an impairment of immunol ogical functions is seen. This study was designed to analyse the influ ence of various groups of antibiotics on the host defence system by us ing different tests in vitro on human or animal cells and in vivo on a n animal model. At the same time we analysed the antimicrobial effecti veness of the same antibiotics on over 2800 bacterial strains isolated from our clinical material. Preliminary findings show that a correlat ion exists between the effect of antibiotics on the immune response, e specially the humoral response, and the appearance of resistance in ba cteria to these antibiotics.