1984 Volume 7 Issue 4 Pages 261-268
Three cases of necrotizing lymphadenitis with depressed natural killer activity were reported. Necrotizing lymphadenitis, which is a benign disorder, has some characteristic manifestations such as occurrence in young people, leukopenia, elevation of serum LDH level, and so on. All of our cases presented these characteristic features. Although the etiology of necrotizing lymphadenitis is not yet known, participation of immunological mechanisms has recently been found to contribute partly to the induction of this disease. On immunological examination, depressed natural killer activity and the dissociation of natural killer activity from antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity were observed in all our cases. In analyzing the depressed natural killer activity, plasma and serum inhibitors of the activity were not detected, and it was shown that the patient's natural killer cells had responded to interferon. Natural killer cells are important effector cells in cellular immunity and are cytotoxic to some tumor cells and virus-infected cells without antibody. The depressed natural killer activity in our cases could suggest that the disturbance of cellular immunity may have an important role on the etiology of necrotizing lymphadenitis.
