A Positive Correlation between the Precursor Frequency of Cytotoxic Lymphocytes to Autologous Epstein‐Barr Virus‐Transformed B Cells and Antibody Titer Level against Epstein‐Barr Virus‐Associated Nuclear Antigen in Healthy Seropositive Individuals

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Abstract
A limiting dilution analysis was established to determine the precursor frequency (PF) of cytotoxic lymphocytes against autologous B cells transformed with the Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV). This method was found to detect mainly self‐restricted T‐cell activity and little non‐self‐restricted cytotoxicity. The mean PF in 21 healthy EBV‐seropositive persons was 1.4 × 10‐3 (range: 0.03 × 10‐3 to 8.7 × 10‐3) for peripheral blood mononuclear cells, whereas 4 samples of mononuclear cells obtained from umbilical cord blood had PFs below 0.007 × 10‐3. A positive correlation was observed between the PF and serum antibody titers against EBV‐associated nuclear antigen among the seropositive persons.