title: T lymphocyte function in hairy cell leukaemia.
abstract: The high incidence of infections characteristic of impaired cell-mediated immunity in patients with hairy cell leukemia led us to study T lymphocyte function in sixteen patients with the lymphocyte transformation test. All patients showed imparied responses to mitogens, attributable to one or more of the following causes: dilution of responsive T cells by inert hairy cells, shortage of monocytes to give adequate interaction with the T cells and a significant decrease in the number of T cells with Fcmu receptors proportional to the percentage of hairy cells in the peripheral blood. The response to antigens was severely depressed; PPD was one of the few antigens that induced positive reactions in half the cases. We conclude that in patients with hairy cell leukaemia, T lymphocyte function, as tested in a proliferative assay, is severely impaired and that this may contribute to the deficient resistance to infection.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000276:immunology; D007943:Leukemia, Hairy Cell / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008934:Mitogens / Q000494:pharmacology; D009000:Monocytes / Q000276:immunology; D011961:Receptors, Fc / Q000032:analysis; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D008934:Mitogens; D011961:Receptors, Fc