Discrimination of human cytotoxic lymphocytes from regulatory and B-lymphocytes by orthogonal light scattering

Light scattering properties of human lymphocyte subpopulations selected by immunofluorescence were studied with a flow cytometer. Regulatory and B-lymphocytes showed a low orthogonal light scatter signal, whereas cytotoxic lymphocytes identified with leu-7, leu-11 and leu-15 revealed a large orthogonal light scatter signal. Two populations in light scatter histograms could be observed with monoclonal antibodies directed against determinants present on both regulatory and cytotoxic lymphocytes. By analysis of the lymphocytes of 16 individuals we found a linear relation between the number of cells with a large orthogonal light scattering and the number of cytotoxic lymphocytes identified with leu-7, leu-11 and leu-15. These observations demonstrate physical differences between cytotoxic lymphocytes and regulatory and B lymphocytes. Moreover, the results suggest a method to estimate the amount of cytotoxic lymphocytes without using monoclonal antibodies.