Impaired mixed-lymphocyte culture reactions in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

We studied the response of lymphocytes from 43 patients with inflammatory bowel disease to allogeneic stimulation in one-way mixed-lymphocyte cultures. We found that 53% of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, in contrast to 4% of normal and disease controls, had significant depression of mixed-lymphocyte culture response (P less than 0.01). The depression of mixed-lymphocyte culture response was independent of disease activity, duration (more or less than 10 yr), or presence of corticosteroid therapy. Removal of iron-ingesting mononuclear cells (macrophages) resulted in increased mixed-lmyphocyte culture response in 6 of 7 patients tested.