Immunologic studies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: defective stimulation of T cell proliferation in autologous mixed lymphocyte culture.J. Natl. Cancer Inst

ABSTRACT-Peripheral blood leukocytes from untreated pa· tients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (Cll) and normal age-and sex-matched control individuals were tested for the ability to respond with increased DNA synthesis after mixed lymphocyte culture (MlC) with allogeneic and autologous lymphocyte frac-tions. We performed these tests using, as responder cells, un-fractionated mononuclear cells and T-cell-enriched populations obtained after nylon-wool column filtration. The results showed that nonadherent T-cell-enriched populations from both Cll pa-tients and normal controls responded to allogeneic stimulation and that adherent cell fractions from normal individuals, and often from Cll patients, provided a stronger stimulus in MlC than did nonadherent cells. T-cell-enriched populations from nor-mal individuals showed increased DNA synthesis after autolo-gous mixed lymphocyte culture (AMlC) with adherent cells, bu