Isolation and kinetic characteristics of mucosal lymphocytes in Crohn's Disease

Single cell suspensions of lymphocytes have been prepared from human gut mucosa, and short-term culture used to characterize the kinetics of DNA synthesis of mucosal lymphocytes. High rates of DNA synthesis were found in 72-hr cultures of Crohn's disease mucosal lymphocytes, compared with normal subjects. These high rates correlated with the appearance of numerous transformed blast cells in terminated cultures. Lymphocytes from normal and abnormal human gut mucosa were stimulated by phytohemagglutinin-P, except in some patients with Crohn's disease with high rates of "spontaneous" DNA synthesis. The isolation and culture of human gut mucosal lymphocytes by a simple preparative technique will enable the direct study of lymphocyte function in both normal and diseased gut mucosa.