Rosetting of human T lymphocytes with goat red blood cells: effect of treatment with 2-aminoethylisothiouronium bromide (AET) and comparison with AET treated sheep red blood cells.

In vitro treatment of goat red blood cells (GRBCs) with the sulphydryl compound 2-aminoethylisothiouronium bromide (AET) increases their specific reactivity with human T lymphocytes without affecting the specificity of the reaction. AET-GRBCs bind to only part of T lymphocytes rosetting with AET-sheep red blood cells (SRBCs): the receptors for both types of RBCs are very simular if not identical, but display higher affinity for AET-SRBCs than for AET-GRBCs. Rosetting of T lymphocytes with AET-GRBCs may be useful to enumerate T lymphocyte subsets in patients with abnormality of the immune system and to fractionate T lymphocyte subpopulations.