Abnormal immunoregulation in remission Hodgkin disease.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 11 patients with remission Hodgkin disease and 20 normal controls were incubated with irradiated allogeneic lymphocytes in one-way mixed lymphocyte cultures. Simultaneously, modified assays were performed by adding supplemental irradiated PBM, T lymphocytes, or adherent cells autologous to the responders. Baseline allogeneic responsiveness of patients and controls was not different. However, significant suppression (p less than .01) was demonstrated when the cultures were supplemented with patient mononuclear cells or adherent cells, an effect not found with similar supplemental cells from controls. Conversely, T-cell supplementation of control cultures produced more than twofold increases in proliferation but significantly less augmentation in the patients' cultures (p less than .01). T-cell subset analysis in six patients showed decreased helper: suppressor cell ratios. Hodgkin disease patients have adherent suppressor cells, which persist during remission, as well as a defect in T-cell helper function.