Identification of T lymphocytes in ocular adnexal neoplasms by hybridoma monoclonal antibodies.

We performed indirect immunofluorescence with the OKT series of hybridoma monoclonal antibodies in order to determine the total number of T cells and their subset distribution, that is, the percentages of helper (OKT3+T4+T8-) and suppressor/cytotoxic (OKT3+T4-T8+) T cells, in 28 ocular adnexal lymphoid neoplasms. OKT3+T4+ (helper) T cells vastly predominated in each of ten benign, polyclonal ocular lymphoid proliferations. The helper-suppressor T-cell ratio (T4-8) ranged from 2.5 to 8.2 (mean, 5.4) in these ten cases. In comparison, the mean T4-T8 ratio in 24 benign reactive lymph nodes was 3.4. These findings strongly suggested that the polyclonal ocular lymphoid proliferations represent a T-cell antigen-dependent response characterized by a proliferation of helper T cells, which in turn drive B cells to proliferate and to differentiate, eventually resulting in the formation of a clinically detectable tumor. The mean T4-T8 ratio was 2.3 in 18 ocular and in 16 nodal monoclonal B-cell proliferations, suggesting that the benign T cells in these proliferations represent a residual cell population rather than a distinctive subset originating in response to the B-cell neoplasm.