William McFarland

Abnormal Leukocyte Response in Alcoholism

Excerpt Hematologic abnormalities are well-recognized in cirrhosis of the liver and studies to elucidate the cause usually incriminate the advanced liver disease and secondary splenomegaly with res...

Lymphocyte Response to Blood Transfusion in Man

Abstract In 15 of 17 patients who received fresh or stored blood as whole blood or packed cells, a fivefold or greater rise in atypical lymphocytes or in vitro 3H-thymidine incorporation by blood leukocytes (or both) occurred one week after transfusion. These values declined to pretransfusion levels by the third week. The mean leukocyte 3H-thymidine incorporation at one week in these 17 patients (1067 disintegrations per second) was significantly greater than that found in five patients undergoing surgery without transfusion (423 disintegrations per second) or with an autotransfusion (457 disintegrations per second), or in three patients receiving frozen-thawed, leukocyte-depleted blood (163 disintegrations per second). Lymphocytotoxic reactivity was also detected in the serum of six of 12 patients. The frequency and timing of this cellular activation and its absence after administration of leukocyte-depleted blood favor an immunologic response to HL-A antigens on the transfused leukocytes and platelets a...

EFFECT OF ERYTHROPOIETIN ON CULTURED HUMAN LEUKOCYTES.

Phytohemagglutinin-stimulated cultures of mature human leukocytes produce a mitotically active cell which appears to be derived from lymphocytes (1,2). Since the lymphocyte has long been suspected of playing a role as stem cell(3,4), a primitive cell originating from lymphocyte precursors might be multi-potential. This possibility and evidence that the hemoglobin type can be altered in irradiated mice by transplantation of leukemoid leukocytes (5) prompted us to study the effect of erythropoietin on cultured human leukocytes. Method. Human peripheral blood leukocytes were cultured in the presence of phyto-hemagglutinin according to the technique of Moorhead et al(6). Cultures were set up in duplicate in each experiment so that one culture could serve as a control for the eryth-ropoietin-treated culture. Erythropoietin was added in concentrations of .01, .05, 0.1, 0.5 and 2.5 units/ml culture medium at 0, 24 and 48 hours in separate experiments. At 66 hours colchicine was added to each culture and at 72 hours cells were harvested, exposed to hypotonic saline solution and fixed in methanol-acetic acid fixative. The cells were then resuspended and total cell counts determined. An aliquot of each culture was spread on a glass slide, air dried, stained with Orcein and studied for the per cent of cells in metaphase. Results. Average total cell counts and per cent of cells in metaphase are shown in Table I. Erythropoietin appeared to have no significant effect on this cell system. Comment. Erythropoietin has not shown a consistent stimulatory effect in all in vitro experiments. However, in those experiments in which it has been effective, results suggest that its major site of action is at the stem cell level where it induces erythroid differentiation (7, 8).

Tuberculin Antigens Active in Human Lymphocyte Blastogenesis

Summary Discrete pools of tuberculopoly-saccharide and tuberculoprotein antigens, prepared by continuous-flow electrophoretic separation of an unheated culture filtrate of M. tuberculosis (H37Rv strain), were tested for induction of lymphocyte blastogenesis in cultures of blood leukocytes from healthy individuals who reacted to an intermediate skin test dose of tuberculin PPD. Approximately 80% of the blastogenic activity of the unseparated culture filtrate was found in the pool of protein antigens while only 7% was detected in the polysaccharide pool. As indicated by immunoelectrophoretic and chemical analyses, the minimal activity of the pooled polysaccharides was attributed to their trace contamination by the protein antigens. It was concluded that tuberculin-induced lymphocyte blastogenesis reflects cellular reactivity to tuberculoprotein antigens. The competent technical assistance of Frances E. Soehnlen is gratefully acknowledged.

Lymphocytes: Past, Present and Future

The remarkable progress in understanding the function of lymphocytes benefits clinical medicine mainly in the fields of organ transplantation and immunologic diseases. It is hoped that eventually immunologic reactions may be willfully stimulated or abrogated according to the clinical situation.

EFFECT OF ETHIONINE-INDUCED PANCREATIC DAMAGE ON INTESTINAL ENZYME ACTIVITY OF THE RAT.

Summary Rats fed d1-ethionine for 25 days showed a significant decrease in small intestinal trypsin, chymotrypsin and lipase activity when compared to controls. The results suggest that levels of intestinal enzyme activity may be used as a quantitative indicator of pancreatic exocrine damage. We wish to express our gratitude to Dr. David C. H. Sun for helpful criticism of the data and manuscript and to Miss Jeanne Chen for technical advice.

Current Observations of Lymphocyte Function: Relation to Clinical Problems.

Excerpt As a result of recent progress in understanding of mechanisms of immunologic reactions including homograft rejection, the lymphocyte, a cell whose functions were little known a decade ago, ...