Increased numbers of cells with suppressor T cell phenotype in the peripheral blood of patients with infectious mononucleosis
Crawford, D.H.; Brickell, P.; Tidman, N.; McConnell, I.; Hoffbrand, A.V.; Janossy, G.
Clinical and Experimental Immunology 43(2): 291-297
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0009-9104 PMID: 6456093 Document Number: 176638
Peripheral blood cells from six patients with acute infectious mononucleosis were studied by two-colour immunofluorescence using antibodies to human T cells, inducer and suppressor-cytotoxic T cell subsets and Ia-like antigens. The absolute number of T cells with the suppressor-cytotoxic phenotype was substantially increased in each case; many of these cells also expressed Ia-like antigens and had the morphology of the large atypical cells characteristic of infectious mononucleosis. These activated suppressor T cells of infectious mononucleosis may therefore represent a control mechanism to prevent viral-induced proliferation of B cells.