Intestinal and peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations in Crohn's disease.

Cellular immunity has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease. In the present work, we have studied T-lymphocytes subsets in peripheral blood and intestinal mucosa of eight patients with active disease, using monoclonal antibodies. Intraepithelial and lamina propia OKT-3 +ve cells were significantly lower than in peripheral blood (p less than 0.001). We have found an increase of B cells and OKT-8 +ve cells in intestinal mucosa with a significant decrease in helper/suppressor ratio. These findings are in accordance with a high suppressor-cytotoxic function in patients with active diseases.