Rosette-formation with mouse erythrocytes. II. A marker for human B and non-T lymphocytes.

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from healthy control subjects were studied for spontaneous rosette-formation with mouse erythrocytes. The mean percentage of mouse erythrocyte rosette-forming cells (MRFC) in sixty-three subjects was 7.4X3.5; after neuraminidase treatment olymphocytes the mean percentage of mouse erythrocyte rosette-forming cells(NMRFC) was 17.2X5.6. Thymus cell suspensions made only occasional rosettes with mouse erythrocytes. There was no effect of neuraminidase treatment of thymocytes on mouse erythrocyte rosette-formation. Double labelling experiments with other cell surface markers confirmed this binding of mouse erythrocytes to be a B-cell characteristic. Monocytes and granulocytes do not bind mouse erythrocytes. It appears that there is a distinct receptor for the binding of mouse erythrocytes on the surface of lymphocytes carrying surface immunoglobulins; neuraminidase treatment of lymphocytes permits this binding to occur also on virtually all the non-T cells B cells plus the third population cells).