The Immunodeficiency of Bone Marrow-Transplanted Patients.

Abstract
Lymphocytes from 21 patients sampled 1-6 months after bone marrow transplantation (BMT) were tested for functional suppressor activity against marrow-donor lymphocytes in the lymphocyte transformation test. Suppression of donor responses to allogeneic (i.e. mixed lymphocyte reaction, MLR) and antigenic stimulation by irradiated (7600 rad) post-BMT cells was observed in about two-thirds of the combinations tested (N=20 and N=9). The suppression of donor MLR and antigen responses ranged between 5-52% and 10-46%, respectively. Irradiated post-BMT cells significantly suppressed donor responses to suboptimal concentrations of phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) (median suppression: 28%; P+/CD8+ post-BMT cells were lower than 0.5 (P+ cells.