ISOLATION OF HUMAN SPONTANEOUS KILLER LYMPHOCYTES BY BACTERIAL ADHERENCE

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  • 1 January 1980
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 39  (2) , 510-518
Abstract
Human lymphocyte subpopulations (B [bone marrow-derived], T[thymus-derived]1, T2, T3 and T4 denomination) were identified previously by bacterial adherence and differences between them in mitogen responses and specific cytotoxic activity were found. In this study another aspect was investigated to find functions associated with these subpopulations, namely the spontaneous killing (SK) ability. Freshly isolated human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were separated into adherent and non-adherent cells following centrifugation against various bacterial monolayers. The PBL [peripheral blood lymphocytes] and the resulting subpopulations of PBL were tested alone or in combination as effector cells in 4 h cytotoxicity assay against human lymphoblastoid cell lines of B or T cell origin. The T3 + T4 cells or T4 cells alone showed a significantly higher SK activity against B and T target cell lines when compared with unseparated PBL, T1 + T2, or T3 cells alone. The T4 cells, which were also enriched in cells with receptors for the Fc portion of Ig[immunoglobulin]G, contain the lymphocytes resonsible for SK activity; SK cells can be purified by negative selection using bacterial adherence.