[Features of the B-lymphocyte population of patients with malignant continuously progressive juvenile schizophrenia].

Using immunofluorescence techniques, the authors measured the peripheral levels of B-lymphocytes and the number of immunoglobulin-synthetizing cells in 16 patients with malignant juvenile continuously progressive schizophrenia and in 19 healthy donors. The schizophrenic patients showed elevated amounts of circulating B-lymphocytes--24.4% versus 15.9% in the healthy donors. Moreover, this elevation came about at the expense of lymphocytes carrying immunoglobulins G and M on their surface. The study of the immunoglobulin-synthetizing property of B-lymphocytes showed that B-lymphocytes in schizophrenic patients were more active. The blood of schizophrenic patients contained two times as many cells with cytoplasmic immunoglobulins as in the control group. Differences in the number of cells with cytoplasmic immunoglobulins became even more significant following cultivation of lymphocytes with polyclonal B-cellular PWM activator.