Cytotoxic effector cells specific for B Cell lines transformed by Epstein-Barr virus are present in patients with infectious mononucleosis.

Peripheral lymphoid cells, from 12 cases of acute infectious mononucleosis (IM), were tested in a micro chromium-51 release assay for cytotoxic activity against a variety of cell lines that did or did not carry the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome. Unfractionated lymphocytes from these patients were cytotoxic to both types of cell lines, as were lymphocytes from healthy individuals. If, however, lymphocytes bearing complement receptors were removed, the residual IM lymphocyte fraction was specifically cytotoxic for EBV-genome-carrying cell lines. The residual lymphocyte fraction in normal donors had no such effect. Heterophile-positive IM is caused by EBV, and these results indicate that, during the acute phase of this disease, patients harbor killer cells, probably T cells, which specifically kill EBV-genome-carrying B cells in vitro. No such specificity for EBV-genome-psitive target cells was found in normal lymphocytes stimulated in vitro with autologous EBV-genome-positive lymphoblastoid cells. Such stimulated cells were highly cytotoxic to both genome-positive and negative lines after removal of complement receptor-positive lymphocytes.