Delineation and Quantitation of Human Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Subpopulations by Electrophoretic Mobility and Role of Surface Charge in Cell to Cell Interaction

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Abstract
A modified procedure is proposed for determination of electrophoretic mobility (EPM) of lymphocytes which enables readings on 200 cells from a sample size of 5 × 106 lymphocytes. In normal human peripheral blood, B lymphocytes (bearing surface immunoglobulin and receptor for activated C3) were found to carry the lowest charge (0.94 ± 0.05 µ/sec/V/cm). Their number on the EPM basis was 16.9 ± 4.2%. Two subpopulations of T lymphocytes, one carrying high charge (TH) with a mean EPM of 1.26 ± 0.04 µ/sec/V/cm and the other carrying lower charge (TL) with a mean EPM of 1.11 ± 0.03 µ/sec/V/cm were discernible. The former subpopulation of T cells formed spontaneous rosettes with SRBC in 10 min and the latter represented the remaining T lymphocytes which formed rosettes with 24 hr of incubation with SRBC. The number of early rosette-forming cells increased from 69 to 89% when T cells were incubated with neuraminidase-treated SRBC. These observations suggest that complementary electrostatic charge on T cells and SRBC are among the forces facilitating formation of rosettes between these cells.