Cytogenetic effects of the addition of leukocytes and blood sera on human fibroblasts exposed to measles virus or to streptolysin-O.

Infection with measles virus and also introduction of streptolysin-O induced a significant increase in the level of cells with cytogenetic disturbances in the culture of human fibroblasts (HF). A decrease to intact condition of the number of HF with aneuploid and polyploid sets of chromosomes was observed after the introduction of non-immune autologous T-lymphocytes into the cultures. Immune homologous T-lymphocytes, unlike non-immune autologous T-lymphocytes, eliminated cells with structural disturbances of the chromosomes from the culture, but did not influence the level of aneuploid and polyploid cells. The ability of immune T-lymphocytes to exert antimutagenic effect can obviously be explained by their cytolytic action on virus-infected cells. As for non-immune autologous T-lymphocytes, two ways are equally probable: T-lymphocytes eliminate HF with virus antigens on their surface, or T-lymphocytes determine and destroy fibroblasts with changed cell surface developing as a result of cytogenetic disturbances induced by infectious factors. Specificity of the cytolytic reaction of T-lymphocytes concerning cells with some types of cytogenetic disturbances has been demonstrated.