Direct evidence for loss of human suppressor cells during active autoimmune disease.

These studies indicate that a regulatory subset of lymphocytes is missing in patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis but these patients have antibodies in their serum that react with normal T cells. This regulatory subset of T cells is, however, present in patients whose serum shows little or no reactivity with normal T cells. In addition, patients who are deficient in this regulatory subset of lymphocytes significantly higher numbers of cells secreting Ig as measured by a hemolytic plaque assay. The significance of these observations is twofold: first, they represent a positive relationship among the loss of regulation overproduction of immunoglobulin, and the presence of anti-T cell antibodies and second and perhaps of equal importance, is the indication that serum from patients with autoimmune diseases may give us a readily available reagent with which to dissect further functionally distinct subsets of normal T cells in man.