1982 Volume 5 Issue 4 Pages 301-307
Effects of the peripheral-blood lymphocytes and culture supernate of the lymphocytes from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) on the formation of colonies originated from the human bone marrow CFU-C, a precursor cell of the granulocyte and macrophage system in man, were determined in order to clarify the pathomorphological state of SLE-related leukopenia. The methods employed were as follows: 2×105 cells of the peripheral blood lymphocytes of the patients were added to an equal number of human bone marrow nucleated cells, and this mixture was embedded in 1.0ml of a 0.3% Agar gel added McCoy's 5A solution containing 20% foetal calf serum (FCS) and 10% culture supernate of the human placenta as a colony stimulating factor (CSF). This sample was then put into a culture plate. In certain experiments, 10% of the supernate of the culture in which 1×106 cells of human bone marrow nucleated cells had been incubated for seven days with an equal number of the patients' peripheral blood lymphocytes was added to incubation medium and this was incubated for a further seven days in an incubator at 37°C under the presence of 5% CO2. For calculation purposes the appearance of more than 40 cell masses in inverted-microscopy was defined as a colony. The results showed that the lymphocytes and culture supernate of the lymphocytes of the patients strongly inhibited the formation of colonies. And it suggests the possible linkage of immunological injury mediated by the lymphocytes to the occurrence of leukopenie in SLE patients.
