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Spontaneous Lymphocyte Proliferation during Trauma and Infection
Author(s) -
SOOP M.,
SOOP A.,
SUNDQVIST K.G.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1988.tb01499.x
Subject(s) - lymphocyte , in vitro , medicine , gastroenterology , immunology , biology , biochemistry
Spontaneous lymphocyte proliferation (SpP), measured in vitro as the rate of [ 14 C]thymidine incorporation in blood lymphocytes, was investigated in non‐infected postoperative patients, infected postoperative patients, and healthy volunteers, with 72, 24, and 3 h of lymphocyte culture. With 24‐h cultures, infected postoperative patients showed 17‐fold higher SpP than non‐infected postoperative patients (2527±1552 versus 151±77 cpm, mean± SD, P <0.001) and 37‐fold higher SpP than healthy volunteers ( P <0.001). Postoperative patients without infection had twice as high SpP as healthy volunteers ( P <0.001). Lymphocytes harvested after 24 h of cell culture showed significantly higher SpP than corresponding values at 72 and 3 h, in patients as well as in healthy volunteers ( P <0.01). Infected postoperative patients showed a higher SpP than non‐infected patients after only 3 h of cell culture (270±192 versus 48±10 cpm, P <0.001). An inverse correlation was observed between the level of SpP and body temperature in patients with postoperative infection ( r =‐0.62, P <0.05). The results indicate that lymphocytes are activated by uncomplicated surgery and particularly by postoperative infection, and that characteristics of SpP are reproducible in short cell‐culture periods, which suggests that in vitro measurements of SpP may be of value in the detection of severe postoperative infection.