Blastic transformation of lymphocytes in in vitro cultures during immunosuppressive therapy in patients with glomerulonephritis.

Z Szewczyk, M Klinger, H Melcer, K Falkiewicz

Archivum immunologiae et therapiae experimentalis 1975

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Blastic transformation of peripheral blood lymphocytes following stimulation with phytohemagglutinin during immunosuppressive therapy (prednisone 2 mg/kg body weight, indomethacin 2--3-5 mg/kg, azathioprine 2--4 mg/kg, cyclophosphamide 1-5--3 mg/kg per day) was studied in 59 patients with various morpholigic forms of chronic glomerulonephritis and in 7 with lupus erythematosus nephritis. No uniformly regular influence of immunosuppressive therapy in the doses employed in glomerulonephritis on blastic transformation in in vitro cultures was noted. The specific drug administered was not decisive for the character of the change in reactivity of lymphocytes (increase or decrease in blastic transformation). The interesting observation was made that efficacy of treatment was high in patients with lowest initial values of blastic transformation and its greatest increase during therapy. Apparently, disorders of cellular immunity assessed on the basis of blastic transformation of lymphocytes stimulated with phytohemagglutinin are not a decisive prognostic factor in glomerulonephritis. The results are discussed from the aspect of a possible influence of immunosuppressive therapy on restoration of the physiological proportion of T and B lymphocytes in peripheral blood.

Citation

Z Szewczyk, M Klinger, H Melcer, K Falkiewicz. Blastic transformation of lymphocytes in in vitro cultures during immunosuppressive therapy in patients with glomerulonephritis. Archivum immunologiae et therapiae experimentalis. 1975;23(3):367-78