A rapid micro-method for the phytohaemagglutinin-induced human lymphocyte transformation test.

A quantitative method for phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) induced lymphocyte transformation is described. This method has the following advantages. Cultures require as few as 10 lymphocytes and are performed in microtrays, over a short incubation period (48 hr).

Plasma TSH and serum T-4 levels in long-term follow-up of patients treated with 131-I for thyrotoxicosis.

In February 1972 58% of patients euthyroid after iodine-131 therapy given for thyrotoxicosis between 1954 and 1966 had a high plasma TSH (>7.4 muU/ml) and 42% a normal plasma TSH level. A group of 69 of the euthyroid patients with high plasma TSH levels (25.

Electrophoresis of lymphocytes from normal human subjects and patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

The electrophoretic mobility (EM) of peripheral blood lymphocytes from twelve normal subjects and four patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) was studied in relation to the thymus-derived (T) lymphocytes and bone marrow-derived (B) lymphocytic system. An attempt was made to correlate electrophoretic results with other methods of identifying T and B lymphocytes—T cells by the formation of sheep-cell rosettes and B cells by the formation of erythrocyte–antibody–complement (EAC') rosettes and by staining for surface immunoglobulin. In the normal subjects the majority of cells migrated quickly with a small `tail' of slower cells.

Cellular hypersensitivity to mitochondrial antigens in diabetes mellitus and its relationship to the presence of circulating autoantibodies.

Leucocyte migration tests with rat liver mitochondria have been performed in eighteen patients with juvenile diabetes mellitus and in fifteen healthy controls. Leucocytes from normal subjects showed no inhibition of leucocyte migration, whereas inhibition occurred in twelve out of eighteen diabetics. The active component appeared to be in the inner membranes of the mitochondria in seventeen patients, whilst leucocytes from one patient showed inhibition to outer membrane fragments.

Evidence for circulating immune complexes in thyroid disease.

Anti-complementary activity was detected in the sera of 23 (59%) out of 39 patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis; in 10 (29%) out of 34 patients with primary hypothyroidism; in six (17%) out of 36 patients with thyrotoxicosis; and in only six (8%) out of 78 control subjects. Fractionation of Hashimoto sera by Sephadex G-200 chromatography showed that the anti-complementary activity was founding fractions of larger molecular size than monomeric IgG, being localized predominantly in the ascending limb of the second elution peak, suggesting that it was in the form of small immune complexes.

Lymphocyte cytotoxicity induced by pre-incubation with serum from patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis.

Lymphocytes from healthy donors were incubated with serum samples from nine patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis and subsequently shown to be cytotoxic to chicken red blood cells (Ch. RBC) coated with thyroglobulin. Target cell death was estimated using a standard Cr release assay system.

Circulating lymphocyte subpopulations in Hashimoto thyroiditis.

Peripheral blood and T and B lymphocytes and [I]thyroglobulin-binding lymphocytes were investigated in twenty-two euthyroid Hashimoto thyroiditis patients and in twenty-two age- and sex-matched normal subjects. Although the total lymphocyte count in Hashimoto patients (mean±SEM = 1226±187/mm) was lower than in normal subjects (1603±156/mm) this difference was not statistically significant. There was, however, a statistically significant reduction in the proportion of circulating T lymphocytes in the Hashimoto patients (mean±SEM = 57·4±2·5%) as assessed by the sheep red-cell rosette method when compared with the normal controls (mean±SEM = 66·7±1·8%).