PERIPHERAL-BLOOD B-LYMPHOCYTE ABNORMALITIES ASSOCIATED WITH HYPERTHYROIDISM OF GRAVES-DISEASE

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  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 26  (3) , 431-440
Abstract
Proportions of peripheral blood thymus-derived lymphocytes (T cells) and bone-marrow-derived lymphocytes (B cells) were studied in 12 hyperthyroid patients and 99 non-hyperthyroid control subjects, including 39 healthy individuals and 60 patients with various disorders. All hyperthyroid patients had Graves'' disease and 8 were untreated. The sheep erythrocyte (E)-rosetting technique was employed for enumeration of T cells, and the immunofluorescent technique was used for identification of lymphocytes with surface immunoglobulins (SIg), a marker for B cells. Hyperthyroid patients had higher percentages of lymphocytes stainable for SIg, whereas their T-cell proportions were the same as the control values. Approximately half or more of the fluorescein stainable lymphocytes reacted with each of the 5 antisera against individual heavy chain determinants, including the .epsilon. chain, indicating the presence of more than 3 Ig determinants on the same cell. The fluorescein-stainable cells did not form E rosettes. Blocking of the Fc [Ig fragment] receptor on lymphocytes by incubating the patients'' cells with heat-aggregated human IgG or heated goat anti-bovine serum albumin (anti-BSA) failed to abolish the subsequent fluorescent staining of the cells. Incubation of patients'' lymphocytes with non-fluorescent anti-.epsilon. inhibited the subsequent staining of cells with fluoresceinated anti-.epsilon. but not staining with fluoresceinated anti-.mu. or anti-.gamma.. The study revealed B-cell abnormalities associated with hyperthyroidism, manifested by the simultaneous presence of multiple Ig classes, including IgE, on a single B cell. Results of studies of incubation of the patients'' plasmas with lymphocytes from healthy individuals and studies of SIg by overnight culture of the patients'' lymphocytes with or without prior trypsinization suggested that the SIg was generated endogenously by the cell on which it resided.