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NE Kay and RT Perri
Department of Medicine, Veterans Administration Medical Center,
Minneapolis, MN 55417.
B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients frequently suffer from
moderate to severe hypogammaglobulinemia. This complication is a serious
cause of morbidity and mortality in this disorder. There is recent evidence
that natural killer (NK) cells modulate B-cell immunoglobin (Ig)
synthesis/secretion. The authors therefore evaluated the circulating NK
cells from B-CLL patients on their ability to regulate mitogen-induced
B-cell Ig synthesis. Blood, NK cells (CD16+, CD3-) from three B-CLL
patients with hypogammaglobulinemia were able to clearly down-regulate the
pokeweed mitogen (PWM)-induced-B-cell Ig secretion. In contrast, CD16+,
CD3- cells from age-sex-matched controls or B-CLL patients with normal Ig
were either nonregulatory or enhanced mitogen-induced B-cell Ig secretion.
An alternative explanation for hypogammaglobulinemia in B-CLL patients is
the immunomodulation of B- cell Ig production/secretion by CD16+, CD3-
blood cells.
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| Copyright © 1989 by American Society of Hematology Online ISSN: 1528-0020 | |||||||||