Normal and malignant T cells in the regulation of inflammation and immunity

Normal T cells play an important role in the regulation of humoral immune responses by acting as potentiators (helper cells) or inhibitors (suppressor cells) of the process by which B cells mature into immunoglobulin-secreting plasma cells. Certain diseases in which malignant T cells appear to retain an immunoregulatory function are characterized by the propensity of a lymphomatous T-cell population to infiltrate skin. This may lead to an extensive inflammatory syndrome with cutaneous exfoliation. Some cutaneous T-cell lymphomas, as well as some T-cell neoplasms without dermatologic involvement, provide a homogeneous supply of T lymphocytes which have immunoregulatory functions. The availability of such neoplastic T immunoregulators might accelerate the serologic and biochemical analysis of the cellular control of normal immunity in man.