title: Spontaneous lymphocyte proliferation during trauma and infection.
abstract: Spontaneous lymphocyte proliferation (SpP), measured in vitro as the rate of [14C]thymidine incorporation in blood lymphocytes, was investigated in non-infected postoperative patients, infected postoperative patients, and healthy volunteers, with 72, 24, and 3 h of lymphocyte culture. With 24-h cultures, infected postoperative patients showed 17-fold higher SpP than non-infected postoperative patients (2527 +/- 1552 versus 151 +/- 77 cpm, mean +/- SD, P less than 0.001) and 37-fold higher SpP than healthy volunteers (P less than 0.001). Postoperative patients without infection had twice as high SpP as healthy volunteers (P less than 0.001). Lymphocytes harvested after 24 h of cell culture showed significantly higher SpP than corresponding values at 72 and 3 h, in patients as well as in healthy volunteers (P less than 0.01). Infected postoperative patients showed a higher SpP than non-infected patients after only 3 h of cell culture (270 +/- 192 versus 48 +/- 10 cpm, P less than 0.001). An inverse correlation was observed between the level of SpP and body temperature in patients with postoperative infection (r = -0.62, P less than 0.05). The results indicate that lymphocytes are activated by uncomplicated surgery and particularly by postoperative infection, and that characteristics of SpP are reproducible in short cell-culture periods, which suggests that in vitro measurements of SpP may be of value in the detection of severe postoperative infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Huddinge University Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Soop
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soop
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Sundqvist
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology