Analysis of activation markers on tonsillar T lymphocytes.

Tonsillar T lymphocytes have several characteristics of activated lymphocytes, but the activation antigens are not detected on their surface, except for the Tac antigens by means of a sensitive protein A rosette assay. In this study the increased ability of tonsillar T lymphocyte to form autologous rosettes is presented. These data are in agreement with the hypothesis that tonsillar T lymphocytes contain activated T lymphocytes.