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Surface membrane changes in lymphocytes from patients with infectious mononucleosis
Author(s) -
Mintz Uri,
Sachs Leo
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910190310
Subject(s) - mononucleosis , concanavalin a , cell , immunology , medicine , biology , chemistry , in vitro , virus , biochemistry
Peripheral blood lymphocytes from 20 patients with acute infectious mononucleosis (IM) were studied for cell aggregation and for cap formation by concanavalin A (Con A). The lymphocytes from these patients showed 5.2±1.5% cells with a Con‐A‐induced cap and a high degree of cell aggregation without Con A, compared to 27.7±3.2% caps and a low degree of cell aggregation with normal lymphocytes. The lymphocytes from IM patients were fractionated to enrich for T and B cells. There was a low frequency of cap formation in both T and B cells, but the high degree of cell aggregation without Con A only occurred with B cells. Studies with four patients in clinical remission from acute IM have shown that the frequency of Con‐A‐induced cap formation only returned to normal more than 3 months after the beginning of clinical remission and that even at 6 months the cells still showed a high degree of cell aggregation. The results indicate that a high degree of B‐cell aggregation and a low percentage of B and T cells with a Con‐A‐induced cap were associated with acute IM and that the changes associated with a high degree of B‐cell aggregation were by themselves not sufficient to cause the disease.