Background. Stress, including surgical trauma, results in different dysfunctions of the body. In our former experiments on posttraumatic modification of immune response of gastrectomized mice we observed a significant suppression of contact sensitivity. This could be transferred by lymph nodes and spleen T lymphocytes of mice which underwent surgery. Materials and methods. We studied changes in gamma delta and alpha beta T cell numbers in peripheral blood, Peyer's patches, and mesenteric lymph nodes after partial gastrectomy (major operation) and after sham gastrectomy (laparotomy-minor operation) in mice. The number of gamma delta and alpha beta T cells was counted on the FAC-STAR cell sorter before and 1, 2, 3, 7, and 14 days after surgery. Results. In our observations there was a significant increase of percentage of gamma delta T cells both in Peyer's patches (1.9 +/- 0.5 to 10.5 +/- 0.3) and in mesenteric lymph nodes (2.7 +/- 0.7 to 8.8 +/- 3.5) on the third day after partial gastrectomy (546 and 322% of control values, respectively). In contrast in gastrectomized mice the number of alpha beta T cells in Peyer's patches (38.4 +/- 6.8 to 21.2 +/- 6.2) and lymph nodes (56.7 +/- 15 to 40.4 +/- 17) was decreased on day 3 (55 and 71% of control values, respectively). There was a decline in both alpha beta (18.1 +/- 8 to 8.2 +/- 1.7) and gamma delta (6.7 +/- 2.8 to 3.9 +/- 2) T cell numbers in peripheral blood on days 1, 3, and 7 (45 and 58% of normal values, respectively). Sham operation had no significant influence on alpha beta and gamma delta T cell numbers. We observed that after leg amputation the number of gamma delta T cells in mesenteric lymph nodes was significantly increased on day 3 (0.8 +/- 0.2 to 7.7 +/- 0.3), 770% of normal. In contrast to this, leg amputation had a negligible effect on T cell counts in Peyer's patches during all periods of observation. Conclusions. We suggest that the major surgical stress (partial gastrectomy) may disturb the normal cell traffic selectively with increased gamma delta T cell homing in intestinal Peyer's patches and lymph nodes (GALT) and with the cell displacement from peripheral blood to lymphatic organs. The severity and localization of stress may be crucial. (C) 1997 Academic Press.
