ABNORMALITIES IN CD4+ T-LYMPHOCYTE SUBSETS IN PATIENTS WITH COMMON VARIABLE IMMUNODEFICIENCY

In order to investigate whether deficient immunoglobulin production in common variable immunodeficiency (CVI) patients was related to defective T cells functions, phenotype and proliferative responses to mitogen of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were investigated in 9 patients with CVI. The results were compared to those of 12 age- and sex- matched normal controls. The numbers of CD3+ and CD8+ T cells in the patients were not different from those in the control group, but the numbers of CD4 T cells were decreased (511±237 vs 844±247/mm3; P<0.01). The decrease in CD4 T cells was due to a dramatic deficiency in the CD4+ CD45RA+ subset, observed as an absolute value of blood lymphocytes (126±91 vs 384±142; P<0.001) and as a percentage (9.0±7.1 vs 18.8±5.0; P<0.01). In contrast, the CD4+ CD29+ T cell subset was not different in CV1 from those in the control group. Moreover, there was a strong positive correlation between the number of percentages of CD4+ CD45RA+ blood T cells and the proliferative response of PBMC to PHA (respectively, P≤0.02 and P=0.05) and to Con A (P≤0.02). The decrease of CD4+ CD45RA+ T cells could reflect an abnormality in the physiological status of T cells and could be of critical importance in the antibody deficiency. © 1991 Academic Press, Inc.