Use of bacteria and yeasts to identify T lymphocytes in peripheral blood and lymphoid tissues of healthy guinea pigs and guinea pigs fed aflatoxin.

Fifty-four bacterial and 10 yeast isolates were screened to identify strains that were consistently bound by peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of guinea pigs. None of the yeast isolates examined was bound by guinea pig PBL. Of 54 bacterial isolates, 10 were bound by greater than 5% of PBL. Potential lymphocyte markers from these bacteria were chosen for further study. Sodium azide inhibited the binding of bacteria by PBL. Preparations of T lymphocytes indicated that Salmonella schottmuelleri was bound by most T lymphocytes; Yersinia enterocolitica was bound by a subpopulation of T lymphocytes. Patterns of binding of bacteria by lymphocytes from thymus, lymph node, or spleen differed from binding patterns obtained using PBL. Aflatoxin did not affect the total WBC, differential leukocyte count, absolute lymphocyte count, or relative percentage of PCV of guinea pigs given as much as 0.060 mg of aflatoxin B1 equivalents/kg of body weight/day for 3 weeks. Changes in absolute numbers of peripheral blood T lymphocytes were not observed in guinea pigs given aflatoxin when immunofluorescence or bacterial binding was used to identify lymphocyte populations, except that the number of S schottmuelleri-binding lymphocytes (tentatively identified as T lymphocytes) in guinea pigs given the highest dose of aflatoxin (0.060 mg of aflatoxin B1 equivalents/kg/day) was less than the number of T lymphocytes identified by immunofluorescence.