Tonsillar suppressors of killer cells in tonsillitis.

The authors studied the effect of tonsil cells obtained from intact and inflamed tonsils on spontaneous cytotoxicity of autologous blood leucocytes. It has been shown that addition of tonsil cells of patients with chronic tonsillitis and those of animals with experimental tonsillitis to blood cells with a high cytotoxic potential did not augment cytolysis of heteroerythrocytes but inhibited it. Meanwhile in the joint cultivation of tonsil cells of intact animals and children with tonsillar hypertrophy with autologous blood leucocytes the killer effect exceeded that seen in a separate use of these cells. The data presented in this article indicate that non-specific suppressors capable of inhibiting spontaneous killing may appear in tonsils in the course of inflammation.