Hyperthermic effects in vitro on the peripheral lymphocytes isolated from three cases of malignant lymphoma/leukemia.

We have carried out in vitro studies of hyperthermic effects on the viability, blastogenesis, and ultrastructural changes of atypical lymphocytes isolated from the peripheral blood of three patients with malignant lymphoma/leukemia. One was lymphocytic lymphoma/leukemia (T-cell origin), and the others were adult T-cell lymphoma/leukemia (both acute and smoldering type). In the cases of adult T-cell lymphoma/leukemia, the peripheral lymphocytes were found to be more sensitive to hyperthermia than those of non-ATL patients in terms of trypan-blue exclusion ability and blastogenesis ability with concanavalin A challenge. When heated under sublethal conditions, lymphocytes of both ATL and non-ATL patients exhibited the following characteristics: production of multilayered nuclear membranes, increase in vesicles (lysosomes), swelling of mitochondria, and cytoplasmic vacuolization.