Alteration of T cell subsets during tetanus infection treated with high doses of specific immunoglobulins

Peripheral blood lymphocytes of 8 tetanus patients have been studied with monoclonal antibodies and flow cytometry. During the progression of the disease OKT3+ and Leu7+ cells undergo significative daily variations and OKT4+ cells become the majority of peripheral blood T cells. In two patients is present a severe T lymphopenia and one of these subjects presented a more prolonged disease compared to the other ones. B cells are greatly increased after 10-12 days. Two possibilities could be considered to explain our data: firstly a direct effect of the tetanic infection on the recirculation of lymphocytes producing also an expansion of OKT4+ cells containing a helper population; secondly the observed alterations of lymphocytes subsets are not due to the infection itself but rather to the massive administration of specific immunoglobulins to these patients.