Abstract
The peripheral blood T cells of a hypertransfused patient with B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia and pure red cell aplasic were found to exhibit unusual spontaneous cytotoxic activity in vitro. The patient's E-rosette positive cells were cytotoxic for K562 (cultured human crythroleukemia cells) and allogeneic B and T lymphocytes freshly isolated from the peripheral blood of normal and CLL donors. They failed to kill autologous B cells, erythroid progenitors present in allogeneic bone marrow, and a number of cultured human tumor cells (Malme, CAKI) even after prolonged (36 h) co-culture. Peripheral blood T cells isolated from normal controls, other CLL patients, and hypertransfused individuals (n=13) (lid not exhibit spontaneous lymphocytotoxic activity. Circulating cytotoxic T cells having the ability to kill freshly isolated allogeneic lymphocytes have, heretofore, not been reported in humans. Our findings suggest that among this patient's peripheral blood T cells, there exists a subpopulation of lymphocytotoxic cells that closely resemble cytotoxic T cells generated in vitro after priming with allogeneic target cells. Although the lymphocytotoxic cells could have been induced in this patient by previous HLA-mismatched transfusions, it is possible they may have arisen spontaneously and underly the patient's erythroblastopenic state.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1189-1194 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Leukemia Research |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1985 |
Keywords
- CLL
- Lymphocytotoxic
- T cells
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Hematology
- Oncology
- Cancer Research