[Changes in the blood immunological indices of newborn infants as affected by T-activin in vitro].

T-activin, introduced into the culture of mononuclear cells obtained from the blood of healthy newborn infants, does not induce any essential changes in the levels of E-, Ea- and EAC-rosette-forming cells. An overwhelming majority of healthy infants has shown a decrease in the functional activity of lymphocytes in the blast transformation test in response to the optimal dose of ConA and an increase in their functional activity in response to the suboptimal dose of this mitogen. After stimulation with phytohemagglutinin, both the increase of the stimulation index and its decrease have been observed in an equal number of cases. The introduction of the preparation into the culture of mononuclear blood cells isolated from newborn infants with sepsis leads to a considerable increase in the detection rate of Ea-rosette-forming cells with a tendency to an increase in that of E- and EAC-rosette-forming cells. The final values of the stimulation indexes, no matter what the mitogens used, are in conformity with the values characteristic of the normal parameters for healthy newborns, due to a specific pattern of changes in the T-lymphocyte functional activity in the blast-transformation test.