Two small lymphocyte subpopulations in human peripheral blood. I. Purification and surface marker profiles

By means of simple rosette sedimentation methods two subsets from human peripheral blood lymphocytes have been isolated: (1) (E, Fc)- and (2) (E, Ig)-. The first subset was obtained by centrifuging suspensions of macrophage-depleted PBL in which E and EA rosettes had been allowed to form simultaneously. The dominant marker of these E- Fc- cells was surface Ig, and during 4 days of culture this population did not alter its surface markers. Subset 2 was obtained in two ways following rosette centrifugation with AET-treated SRBC and rabbit anti-human Ig-coated autologous RBC. This 'Null cell population' was shown to be highly variable as judged by the surface markers applied after 4 days of culture, and it is suggested that Null cells contain a number of immature lymphoid cells that may acquire their surface marker during culture. It is concluded that the methods described for purification of small subsets of human lymphocytes are effective and easy to perform and might be used to purify cells for functional studies.