Impaired B-lymphocyte reactivity in patients with Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin-lymphomas

Evaluation of the circulating and splenic lymphocyte subpopulations in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphomas and Hodgkin's disease using monoclonal antibodies

The number of B lymphocytes, T lymphocytes and their helper/inducer, cytotoxic/suppressor and NK/K subpopulations was measured in peripheral blood and spleen cell suspensions from patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) in the active stage of the disease and in remission status, as well as in Non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) in active stage of the disease. B lymphocytes were determined by direct immunofluorescence and T lymphocytes with the E rosette technique. Helper/inducer, cytotoxic/suppressor, and NK/K T lymphocytes were determined by indirect immunofluorescence with the monoclonal antibodies OKT4, OKT8 and Leu 7 (HNK1). In the same way, Lyt3 was used for determination of the total T lymphocytes. Whereas in peripheral blood of the NHL group an increase of B lymphocytes and a slight reduction of T lymphocytes could be observed, with normal distribution of the subpopulations, in patients with active HD as well as in those in remission, a marked absolute and relative decrease of T helper/inducer cells was found with normal cytotoxic/suppressor and NK/K proportion. In contrast to this, a significant increase of helper/inducer T lymphocytes with decreased cytotoxic/suppressor T proportion was found in spleen cell suspensions of patients with HD.

B-cell function in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Using a reverse hemolytic protein A plaque assay, spontaneous and pokeweed mitogen (PWM)-induced immunoglobulin (Ig) secretion was determined in peripheral blood from 22 patients with B1-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), one patient with B2-CLL, and one patient with suppressor T-CLL. Diagnoses were established by cytological and histological criteria as well as several marker analyses. Lymphocytes from B1- and B2-CLL patients were unable to secrete Ig either spontaneously or after PWM stimulation. In T-CLL lymphocytes, spontaneous Ig secretion was suppressed very probably by the OKT-8-positive leukemic population, since, after cultivation with PWM, a normal Ig secretion could be demonstrated which was paralleled by a decrease in the OKT-8-positive cells. Cocultivation experiments with freshly isolated, unseparated lymphocytes from normal subjects and lymphocytes from patients were of no informational value, since isolated normal B-cells alone already showed a high rate of Ig secretion. However, coculture experiments with separated subpopulations after PWM stimulation revealed an intrinsic B-cell defect in lymphocytes from B1-CLL patients, whereas their T-lymphocytes were found to be normal helper cells.

PWM-induced generation of immunoglobulin-secreting cells in patients with multiple myeloma

The pokeweed-mitogen-induced transformation of B-lymphocytes into immunoglobulin-secreting cells was studied in vitro in 25 patients with multiple myeloma using a reverse hemolytic plaque assay. Fifteen patients showed a good response in generating immunoglobulin-secreting cells, whereas 10 patients showed a decreased B cell reactivity which was not due to intermittent melphalan/steroid therapy administered to 15 patients. Experiments with lymphocyte subpopulations demonstrated that the inability of some multiple-myeloma patients to generate immunoglobulin-secreting cells was always based on a defect in the B-cell subset. Co-culture experiments with lymphocytes from normal individuals and patients revealed a cell-mediated suppression in one case, whereas humoral suppressive factors in the patients' serum could not be observed using the reverse hemolytic plaque assay. Patients were classified into three groups: (a) patients with a normal B-cell function, (b) patients with a reversible, tumor-dependent suppression of B-cell reactivity and (c) patients in whom the normal B-cell population was replaced by non-reactive cells.