[T lymphocyte subpopulations in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients with a different percentage of CD4+ helper T cells in bone marrow].

Heterogeneity of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) may by partial an explanation of the ability of CLL cells to interact with the environment and it seems to be not related exclusively to cytogenetic abnormalities. For this reason T cell subpopulations were analysed in bone marrow and peripheral blood in two selected groups of B-CLL patients. These groups differed significantly in percentages of CD4+ helper T cells in bone marrow. In the first group (11 patients) percentage of CD4+ cells was higher than 9 p.c., in the second (10 patients) this percentage was equal, or lower than 2 p.c. Moreover these groups differed also in total tumor mass score (TTM-score) according to the criteria of Jaksić and Vitale. TTM-score in the first group was 9.7 in the second--22.9. In the first group CD4- cells predominated over CD8+ cytotoxic suppressor cells, as well as CD4+ CD45RO+ helper-inducer cells predominated over CD4+ CD45RA+ suppressor-inducer cells. In the second group we observed some superiority of CD8+ and CD4+ CD45RA+ cells. We can speculate that the predominance of CD4+ and CD4+ CD45RO+ cells over CD8+ and CD4+ CD45RA+ cells in bone marrow facilitate the proliferation or inhibits the apoptosis of CLL cells when the TTM-score is small. On the contrary when the TTM-score is larger, than the leukemic cells expanded in bone marrow without concomitant helper cells.