T cells, B cells and intermediate forms in the newborn studied by scanning electron microscopy and phosphatase marker

Scanning electron microscopic studies of peripheral blood lymphocytes showed that percentage of T cells was lower in four cases of premature infants born between 30th and 34th week of gestation when compared with that in four cases of term infants (18.6% and 39.9% counted from 956 and 1,379 lymphocytes, respectively). The occurence of lymphocytes with intermediate patterns of surface morphology (I cells) was noted in both groups studied. Percentages of B and I cells were higher in the premature than in the term infant (26.3% and 55.1% and 20.0% and 39.1%, respectively). Analogous tendency in the T cell occurence in the premature and the term infant was demonstrated with acid phosphatase as T cell marker.