Lymphocyte subpopulations during acute and convalescence phases of malaria

Lymphocytes of normal healthy persons were separated from blood by Ficoll-Hypaque gradient centrifugation and iron-magnet application. peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were stained by various dye-labeled monoclonal antibodies. Cells positive for specific surface markers were enumerated by a fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS) and fluorescence microscope (FM). The results revealed that the percentages of cells positive with one monoclonal antibody counted by these two techniques were similar while the percentages of cells with double staining were higher when counted by FACS than by FM. Lymphocyte subpopulations of 18 patients infected with Plasmodium falciparum during acute and convalescence period were studied. Lymphocytopenia occurred during the acute infection while total white blood cell counts were normal. PBL of the patients were stained with OKT3, OKT4, OKT8, Leu-11 and a combination of Leu-7, Leu-1 monoclonal antibodies. The absolute numbers of all lymphocyte subpopulations were decreased during the acute infection while T8 positive cells were decreased in both percentage and absolute number. Thus T4:T8 ratio (1.7:1) became higher than normal (1.3:1) at this period. During convalescence phase, absolute numbers and percentages of Leu-7+, Leu-1+ and perhaps Leu-7+, Leu-11- cells which had low NK cell activity were significantly higher than during acute illness. The finding might explain why the NK cell activity was low during the convalescence period.