Human T lymphocyte subset identification according to avidity for sheep erythrocytes and rosetting capacity with allogeneic red blood cells.

Peripheral blood T lymphocytes of healthy adults were separated in appropriate Ficoll-Hypaque mixtures according to their avidity for sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and re-rosetted with both SRBC and human red blood cells (HRBC). The results showed that separation procedures causing relative depletion of lymphocytes with high avidity for SRBC led to a parallel increase in the percentage of cells forming rosettes with HRBC. Separation procedures leading to almost complete depletion of cells forming rosettes with SRBC also almost completely eliminated cells forming rosettes with HRBC. The overall data suggest that circulating T cells of healthy adults can be divided into two subsets according to their avidity for SRBC. T lymphocytes with low avidity for SRBC preferentially express receptors for HRBC. These data are presented as further evidence of T lymphocyte heterogeneity.