[In vitro cytotoxic activity of peripheral blood lymphocytes in patients with multiple sclerosis. Preliminary report]

Using as target cells chicken erythrocytes labelled with chromium 51Cr the cytotoxic activity (spontaneous and induced with PHA and Con A mitogens) of peripheral blood lymphocytes was studied in patients with multiple sclerosis. The control group comprised healthy subjects, patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and other central nervous system diseases. No changes were observed in the cytotoxic activity of lymphocytes of patients with multiple sclerosis without respect to the course and a duration of the disease process. On the other hand, in patients with SLE a decrease of cytotoxic activity was observed in vitro, both spontaneous activity (p less than 0.01) and mitogen-induced (p less than 0.05) as compared with other group of patients.