Pre-B cells in agammaglobulinemia: evidence for disease heterogeneity among affected boys.

Six immunodeficient boys were found to have agammaglobulinemia and lack circulating B cells. These patients could be divided into two groups based on bone marrow findings and clinical course. In one group, pre-B cells and lymphocytes were present at normal frequencies and in normal absolute numbers. Recurrent serious infections were documented in the first few months of life in these patients, and this consequently led to early diagnosis. In the second group, pre-B cells were virtually undetectable. Patients in this group did not present with recurrent infections until the second year and were thus diagnosed later than were those in the first group. Childhood agammaglobulinemia with deficiency of both pre-B and B lymphocytes appears to be a different disease from X-linked infantile agammaglobulinemia. This disease may involve an arrest of B-lineage cell development at an earlier stage than that responsible for X-linked agammaglobulinemia.