Cytotoxic activity of enriched large granular lymphocyte populations in rheumatoid arthritis

Enriched large granular lymphocyte (LGL) populations and mononuclear cell populations from peripheral blood of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and control individuals were compared for natural killer (NK) cell activity. The NK activity of the two study groups was very similar when mean values for both cell populations were analyzed. When comparing the difference between the NK activity of the mononuclear cell and LGL populations, 44% of the RA patients demonstrated less of an increase than all of the control individuals although the percentages of LGL, Leu 11+, and Leu 7+ cells were equivalent.