Functional aspects of T-cells from patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Responses to self, TNP-modified self, and alloantigens

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Abstract
Peripheral blood T-cell proliferative responses to autologous non-T cells, Trinitrophenyl-modified autologous non-T cells, and allogeneic lymphocytes were measured in 27 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and 22 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The NHL patients were not receiving chemotherapy or immunosuppressive drugs at the time of the study and had not received such agents for at least 3 weeks prior to the study. Responses to autologous non-T cells (the autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction [AMLR]) and to TNP-modified non-T cells were significantly lower in NHL patients than in controls ( < 0.00002 and P < 0.0001, respectively), but responses to alloantigens were not significantly different between the NHL patients and the controls ( > 0.85). There was no definite correlation of low AMLR responses with disease activity, and normal AMLR responses did not define a subgroup of patients relative to histopathologic findings. The deficiency of AMLR in NHL patients appears to be due to a disturbance in the T-cell compartment.