title: The effects of thymic epithelial monolayer-conditioned medium on suppressor cell function following chemotherapy in pediatric patients.
abstract: Human thymic epithelial monolayer-conditioned medium (TEM-CM) enhanced concanavalin A (ConA)-induced suppressor T-lymphocyte activity in 15 of 17 studies of fractionated light-density bone marrow mononuclear cells (LD-BMMC) obtained from pediatric cancer patients within 7 days of chemotherapy (P less than 0.001). However, TEM-CM depressed ConA-induced suppressor T-lymphocyte activity in 14 of 18 studies of LD-BMMC obtained from patients who had received their chemotherapy 14-21 days previously (P less than 0.05). In studies of LD-BMMC from normal subjects, TEM-CM did not show any significant effect on suppressor cell activity, nor did TEM-CM significantly affect spontaneous suppressor cell activity in patients or normals. The effect of direct culture on thymic epithelial monolayers was equivalent to the effect of TEM-CM in both ConA-induced and spontaneous suppressor cell assays. These data demonstrate thymic factor-mediated changes in suppressor T-cell activity of pediatric cancer patients and suggest a postchemotherapy alteration in the bone marrow population of inducible prethymic T cells.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Borzy
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ridgway
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003208:Concanavalin A / Q000494:pharmacology; D003470:Culture Media; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D003470:Culture Media; D003208:Concanavalin A