title: Morphometric analysis of intestinal mucosa. VI--Principles in enumerating intra-epithelial lymphocytes.
abstract: The mucosal response by intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IEL) to antigenic challenge is a useful monitor of local immune activity. Conventional counts of IEL (determined as profile ratios of IEL to enterocyte nuclei) are inaccurate, and over-estimate values by a factor of two, both for disease-control mucosae and untreated 'flat' gluten-sensitized mucosae. Two further proofs are advanced in this paper which expose the inaccuracy of conventional profile-density IEL counts. New ranges (log-transformed data) indicate a disease-control mean of 11 IEL per 100 enterocytes (95% confidence limits 5-27) and 29 IEL per 100 enterocytes (95% confidence limits 14-61) for untreated flat gluten-sensitive mucosae. For simplicity, if conventional IEL "counts" are halved, correct values (based on precise morphometric analyses) are easily obtained for comparative and other purposes.
authors.affiliation: University Department of Medicine, Hope Hospital, Salford, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: P T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Crowe
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Marsh
mesh_terms: D002452:Cell Count; D004847:Epithelial Cells; D005983:Glutens; D006801:Humans; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000166:cytology*; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D005983:Glutens