title: Surface membrane changes in lymphocytes from patients with infectious mononucleosis.
abstract: Peripheral blood lymphocytes from 20 patients with acute infectious mononucleeosis (IM) were studied for cell aggregation and for cap formation by concanavalin A (Con A). The lymphocytes from these patients showed 5.2+/-1.5% cells with a Con-A-induced cap and a high degree of cell aggregation without Con A, compared to 27.7+/-3.2% caps and a low degree of cell aggregation with normal lymphocytes. The lymphocytes from IM patients were fractionated to enrich for T and B cells. There was a low frequency of cap formation in both T and B cells, but the high degree of celll aggregation without Con A only occurred with B cells. Studies with four patients in clinical remission from acute IM have shown that the frequency of Con-A-induced cap formation only returned to normal more than 3 months after the beginning of clinical remission and that even at 6 months the cells still showed a high degree of cell aggregation. The results indicate that a high degree of B-cell aggregation and a low percentage of B and T cells with a Con-A-induced cap were associated with acute IM and that the changes associated with a high degree of B-cell aggregation were by themselves not sufficient to cause the disease.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D002449:Cell Aggregation / Q000187:drug effects; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003208:Concanavalin A / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007244:Infectious Mononucleosis / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D014357:Trypsin / Q000494:pharmacology; D014747:Vinblastine / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D003208:Concanavalin A; D014747:Vinblastine; D014357:Trypsin