Abstract
To the Editor: Stohl et al. (June 27 issue) contend that the altered T4 phenotype in their three patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) accounted for the impaired helper/inducer-cell function of blood lymphocytes in vitro.1 However, they present no formal evidence to support this claim. Peripheral-blood mononuclear cells from the three probands were clearly deficient in their capacity to generate immunoglobulin-secreting cells when stimulated with the polyclonal B-cell activator pokeweed mitogen. As previously reported,2 this finding is a general characteristic of cells from patients with SLE who have phenotypes with the T4 epitope intact. Therefore, the authors focused on the . . .