Lymphocyte function in experimental african trypanosomiasis: mitogenic effects of trypanosome extracts in vitro

Extracts of Trypanosoma brucei and Trypanosoma congolense were incubated in vitro with nonimmune lymphocytes of mice, rats, guinea pigs, and rabbits in order to test for mitogenic effects or for other characteristics of polyclonal B lymphocyte activators. Trypanosome extracts (TE) were not mitogenic for spleen cells of mice, rats, and guinea pigs in vitro, nor did the parasite extracts alter the mitogenic responses of lymphocytes from these animals to known B- and T-cell mitogens. TE also failed to induce polyclonal antibody synthesis in mouse spleen cell cultures in an in vitro antibody response system, in contrast to the effects of bacterial lipopolysaccharide, a known polyclonal B cell activator. Rabbit spleen cell and peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures, however, were stimulated by TE to undergo blastogenesis in vitro. Incubation of rabbit lymphocytes with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and TE or anti-rabbit immunoglobulin serum and TE revealed an additive effect only in terms of the TE-plus-PHA culture responses; these findings suggest that a non-PHA responsive lymphocyte population, possibly B lymphocytes, is stimulated by TE in rabbits. The relationship of trypanosome-induced lymphocyte mitogenic stimulation to other immunological dysfunctions occurring in chronic African trypanosomiasis is discussed.