title: Not simply a foreign body.
abstract: The presence of foreign biological substances in the human body can lead to violent immune reactions. This is the report of a very rare case involving not only the presence of a biological substance, but also a symbiotic relationship between a living plant (the common wheat grain, Triticum aestivum L.) and the human body. Black coal particles and one cereal grain were removed from the subgalea of the right parietal region of a 35-year-old man who had sustained injuries in a motor vehicle accident 16 days earlier. There were signs of germination of the grain, but no macroscopic or microscopic evidence of an inflammatory reaction. Grain germination was verified microscopically. There are various explanations for the absence of an immune reaction, but only coal-tar-induced immunosuppression can explain the observed phenomenon.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral & Maxillo-Facial Surgery, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General Teaching Hospital, U Nemocnice 2, 128 08 Prague 2, Czech Republic. foltan@email.cz
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Foltán
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hlousek
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dundr
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skalický
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hejnák
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000328:Adult; D003031:Coal; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000175:diagnosis*; D020197:Head Injuries, Penetrating / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012535:Scalp / Q000293:injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D012639:Seeds; D014908:Triticum
chemical_list: D003031:Coal