Peripheral blood and bone marrow lymphocyte subsets in patients with multiple myeloma

Abstract

A panel of monoclonal antibodies (McAb) from the Wu series was used to characterize lymphocyte subsets of peripheral blood (PB) from 9 patients with multiple myeloma (MM) by means of indirect immunofluorescence assay. In 7 of these patients bone marrow (BM) cells were also studied. Abnormal distribution of T lymphocyte subsets was observed in these patients, and the alterations were quite similar in both PB and BM. A significant increase in the proportion of WUT₈⁺ cells (P<0.00l) and a reduced WuT₄/WuT₈ ratio (P<0.001) were found in patient group. In both PB and BM of patients, WuT₁₀⁺ cell counts were significantly higher than normal (P<0.00l). There was a good correlation between BM WuT₁₀⁺ cells and BM myeloma cells (r= 0.76, P<0.05), whereas no correlation was found between PB WuT₁₀⁺ cells and BM myeloma cells. The significance of abnormal T-cell subset distribution and elevated WuT₁₀⁺ cells in MM is discussed.

Keywords

multiple myeloma / lymphocyte subsets

References

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