Distribution of subpopulations of T lymphocytes in Hodgkin's disease

In this paper, two aspects of T cell subsets are investigated. Splenic mononuclear cells (MNC) of untreated Hodgkin's disease (HD) patients have been investigated for proportion of immunoregulatory T gamma and T mu cells from 8 uninvolved spleens and 13 involved splenic tissues from HD patients with splenic involvement. As controls, two normal spleens from accident cases were used. It was found that irrespective of the involvement of splenic tissue in the disease process, the HD spleens showed lower percentage of T gamma cells (23.77 +/- 1.03) and higher sequestration of T mu cells (31.6 +/- 2.13) compared to normal spleens (42.5% and 13% resp.). However, there was no significant difference in the total T cell percentages of HD and normal spleens (49.1 +/- 1.13% and 52% resp.). The results therefore indicated the possibility of abnormal sequestration and traffic of T cell subsets in HD. We have also reported here a comparison between T cell subsets from the PBMNC of treated and untreated HD patients and normal healthy donors as assessed by the FcR markers and monoclonal antibodies of Leu series. It was found that the abnormality in T cell subsets could be demonstrated by FcR markers, while Leu 2a and Leu 3a reactivities did not differ in HD and normal PBMNC. The subset proportions identified by two tests did not tally with each other.