Transformation of Lymphocytes From Patients With Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

PEARMIN et al¹in 1963 were the first to demonstrate antigen stimulated mitosis of specifically sensitized leukocytes in tissue culture. These stimulated cells had the same blast-like morphologic appearance as the cells previously described by Hungerford et al²and Nowell³as "transformed" in response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA), which initiates this response independently of previous immunologic sensitization. Since then, a specific transformation response has been demonstrated to many different antigens and has been found to correlate better with delayed hypersensitivity than with circulating antibody.⁴ The idea was quickly proposed that the transformation response could be used as a test for specific sensitization in diseases thought to be of autoimmune etiology.⁵Several authors^6-14have now reported transformation studies of leukocytes from patients with multiple sclerosis. The results of those studies in which morphological methods were used to evaluate the transformation response to neural antigens have