Immune function in patients with previous yersinia arthritis: lymphocyte responses to PHA and Staphylococcus aureus strain Cowan I.

Evidence has accumulated that, first, polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) and humoral factors such as fragments of complement components may regulate immune response, and second, PMN function is enhanced in HLA-B27-positive subjects. We therefore used a whole-blood culture technique to study lymphocyte proliferation in response to phytohaemagglutinin-P (PHA) in blood samples obtained from patients with previous yersinia arthritis and from healthy subjects with or without HLA-B27. In another series of experiments, mononuclear cells were separated from peripheral blood and lymphocyte responses to Staphylococcus aureus strain Cowan I, a B-cell mitogen in fetal calf serum, and to PHA in pooled normal human serum were determined. The patients and the control subjects were always tested simultaneously. The results showed no significant differences between the subject groups. This suggests that humoral factors and enhanced neutrophil function do not exert remarkable effects on in vitro lymphocyte responses to mitogens in HLA-B27-positive subjects.