Alteration of T-lymphocyte subpopulations in patients with primary renal diseases and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Forty-eight patients with a variety of primary renal diseases and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were examined for the proportion of circulating T lymphocytes bearing receptors for IgM (T mu cells) or IgG (T gamma cells). Although the control group showed strikingly similar mean values for both T mu and T gamma cells, the whole group of patients with primary renal diseases and SLE showed a wide scatter of values. Sixteen patients with primary renal diseases and SLE had higher proportions of T gamma cells than the control group, whereas seven patients with chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN), membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN), lipoid nephrosis (LN), and SLE showed very marked decrease in the proportions of T gamma cells in the peripheral blood. On the other hand, six out of the total group of patients had low proportions of T mu cells in the peripheral blood. However, no consistent relationship between the proportion of T mu and T gamma cells was found in our study. These findings indicate that there exists a heterogeneity of T-lymphocyte subpopulation distribution in some patients with primary renal diseases and SLE. The possible significance of these phenomena in the pathophysiology of renal diseases is discussed.