title: Coculture studies of 16 untransfused patients with aplastic anemia.
abstract: We studied the effects of peripheral blood lymphocytes from 16 untransfused patients with severe aplastic anemia (AA) of diverse etiologies on the growth of granulocyte-macrophage colonies from normal marrows. Normal lymphocytes in our system increased the number of granulocytic colonies by 31 +/- 6% (mean +/- SEM). Lymphocytes from 3 of 16 untransfused AA patients significantly inhibited growth in HLA-matched sibling marrows (-30%, -40%, and -37%; p less than 0.01). Although these results suggest that the majority of cases of AA are not mediated by a coculture-detectable immunologic mechanism, studies using lymphocytes obtained from AA patients before transfusions may detect the subpopulation whose disease is immune-mediated and who may therefore respond to immunosuppressive therapy.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000741:Anemia, Aplastic / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003114:Colony-Forming Units Assay; D005260:Female; D006098:Granulocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male