Dissociation of Correlates of Cellular Immunity in Man: Functional Heterogeneity within the Antigen-Reactive Cell Population?

Abstract

Cellular immune responsiveness (CMI) to ubiquitous bacterial antigens was assessed in serial peripheral blood samples collected from normal subjects, employing three in vitro correlates of CMI in parallel. Delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity (DCH) was also assessed on a number of occasions in these subjects. These experiments showed that the reactivity of peripheral blood leukocytes from normal individuals as measured in each of the in vitro tests fluctuated from day to day, and that the reactivity of cells functioning in each of the tests fluctuated independently of one another. In contrast, DCH reactivity in these individuals was not subject to such fluctuations. The results are discussed in terms of the periodic appearance of functionally distinct subpopulations of T lymphocytes in the peripheral circulation.

Modification by soluble antigen of the immune response to mycobacterial infection

“…In vitro assessment of CMI and SBF. The in vitro CMI tests employed were a micro-modification ofthe spleen cell migration inhibition procedure (LMI) and the recently developed leukocyte adherence inhibition (LAI) microtest (15); the principle of antigen-specific inhibition of leukocyte adherence has been employed successfully to measure CMI and associated SBF to tumor (3,4,9,10,12), viral (14), bacterial (13,15) and fungal (20) antigens. In mice, both of these in vitro tests exhibit an absolute requirement ofthymus-dependent lymphocytes (15).…”