Cytofluorimetric analysis of mitogen-activated peripheral blood lymphocytes of non-leukemic lymphoma patients reveals an abnormal disease-related expression pattern of activation antigens.

The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of peripheral T-cell-activation antigen expression after polyclonal in vitro stimulation in early stages of lymphoproliferative diseases. With 18 patients afflicted with recently diagnosed, non-leukemic stages of B and T cell lymphoma cytofluorimetric analysis was performed with peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) after 72 h in culture with and without phytohemagglutinin, using antibodies against the differentiation antigens CD3, CD8, CD4, CD16, CD19, CDw14, and the activation antigens interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R, CD25), HLA-DR (DR), CD56 and transferrin receptor (TR). Compared to healthy controls and patients with other diseases, a very significant reduction of large T cells bearing activation markers was found in all lymphoma cases. Furthermore, a pronounced inhibition in the expression of the activation markers IL-2R and TR, but not of DR, was detected on CD3+ cells in phytohemagglutinin-stimulated PBL of all lymphoma cells independently of DNA synthesis, as measured by [3H]thymidine uptake. Determination of the natural-killer-cell-(NK)-associated antigens CD16 and CD56, available for our studies in a CD16 + CD56 combination kit, revealed, after phytohemagglutinin stimulation, significantly increased expression values in 8 lymphoma patients so far investigated, as compared to 12 healthy controls. Thus, polyclonal activation combined with cytofluorimetric screening of activation antigens seems to give useful information on the functional defect(s) of PBL in an early state of lymphoma, and may therefore be of considerable diagnostic value. The observed pattern of T cell activation antigen expression after phytohemagglutinin stimulation may give further clues to the understanding of immune dysfunction(s) associated with lymphoma.