title: The effects of azathioprine and levamisole on rosette-forming cells of healthy subjects and cancer patients.
abstract: The in vitro effects of azathioprine and levamisole on the capacity of peripheral lymphocytes to form rosettes with sheep erythrocytes were studied in fifteen healthy subjects and forty-one cancer patients. Azathioprine significantly inhibited rosette formation of T lymphocytes in healthy subjects and cancer patients in remission. In contrast, azathioprine could not inhibit rosette formation of T lymphocytes in cancer patients with advanced disease. Patients with advanced tumour had also fewer rosette-forming cells (RFC) than healthy subjects. Levamisole, an anti-anergic chemotherapeutic agent, restored azathioprine-inhibited RFC in healthy subjects and in fifteen out of twenty-two cancer patients. Levamisole alone significantly enhanced low RFC in cancer patients.
mesh_terms: D001379:Azathioprine / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007978:Levamisole / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D012397:Rosette Formation
chemical_list: D007978:Levamisole; D001379:Azathioprine