The in-vitro action of lymphocytes on autologous colon epithelial cells in ulcerative colitis.

The action in culture of peripheral blood lymphocytes on autologous large-intestinal epithelial cells was studied in 13 patients with severe mucosal ulcerative colitis. Two different methods were used to measure lymphocyte activity. These showed that autologous-lymphocyte-induced release of isotopic label and detachment in monolayer culture of large-intestinal epithelial cells was increased in acute ulcerative colitis when compared with findings in the same studies in six normal subjects. Subsequently in four of the six patients who responded to cortisone it was shown that lymphocyte activity against epithelial cells returned to the normal range. Further control studies showed little lymphocyte activity against autologous skin and ileum, suggesting that autologous-lymphocyte-induced damage of large-intestinal epithelial cells is a tissue-specific reaction in patients with acute ulcerative colitis. The absence of reactivity in other colonic inflammatory diseases also suggested that such increased in vitro lymphocyte activity is disease-specific for ulcerative colitis.