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Cytofluorographic Analysis of Pokeweed Mitogen‐stimulated Human Peripheral Blood Cells in Culture
Author(s) -
OTTE R. GAIL,
WORMSLEY SUSAN,
HOLLINGSWORTH J. WILLIAM
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1983.tb06288.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pokeweed mitogen , peripheral blood , immunology , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , in vitro , genetics , biology
By use of monoclonal antibodies and flow cytometry techniques, peripheral blood mononuclear cells from young (20–30 years) and elderly (70+ years) subjects were analyzed before and after culture with pokeweed mitogen to gain insight into the cellular interactions responsible for the decreased B cell response observed in culture samples from the elderly. Data analysis of surface immunoglobulin‐positive cells demonstrated no difference in the percentage of B cells in the elderly, while both plaque‐forming cell and intracytoplasmic immunoglobulin assays showed significantly reduced B cell maturation (P = <0.01) compared with young controls. The B cell defect was shown to be functional and not a result of failure to proliferate and survive during incubation. Surface marker analysis of T cell sub‐populations demonstrated a definite shift ( P = <0.01) in the helper/suppressor T cell ratio in cultured samples from the elderly group (3.9) compared with young subjects (1.2). In addition to the absolute increase in the helper T cell population, forward‐angle light scatter analysis demonstrated that, compared with young controls, a greater portion of the helper T cell population in the elderly subjects had characteristics of activated, blast‐sized cells. The data reported in this study suggest that in the elderly group there is a functional im‐munoregulatory imbalance in the helper T cell subset.