Electrophoretic mobility of lymphocyte subpopulations in infectious mononucleosis

The electrophoretic mobilities (EPM) of lymphocytes from seventeen patients with infectious mononucleosis (IM) and fifteen normal controls were compared. The IM patients were divided into three groups, two in the first week of illness and one in the second week. The lymphocyte EPM distribution was separated by histogram analysis into fast and slow populations and further division of the fast cell population was possible in all but one of the two groups of IM patients during their first week of illness. The percentage of cells of the faster subpopulation in the first week of illness was lower than that of the controls (P less than 0.05) but the absolute lymphocyte count was higher (P less than 0.005). However, the percentage of slow moving cells of both groups in the first week of illness was significantly higher than in either the second week or the normal controls (P less than 0.01-0.001). Absolute counts were higher in all lymphocyte subpopulations of IM (P less than 0.01-0.001).