Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Separation of human peripheral blood T and B cells and detection of viral antigen.

In this study, total blood lymphocytes were prepared from patients with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) by a density gradient on Ficoll-Hypaque. T and B cells were then purified by passing the total lymphocytes over a nylon wool column. The purities of total lymphocytes, T cells and B cells were 97.8 +/- 2.3%, 91.6 +/- 4.5% and 74.2 +/- 12.1%, respectively. Also, after modification of cell fixation and smear drying, the number of cells were increased and the time needed for slide preparation was shortened. Detection of viral antigen by immunofluorescence assay using monoclonal antibodies to Hantavirus (HTNV) showed that the total lymphocytes. T cells and B cells were infected by HTNV during the early stages of HFRS and no specific fluorescence was seen in the cells from the late diuretic phase to convalescent phase. The results suggest that virus replication in blood lymphocytes may partly contribute in the early stages to the impairment of cell immune response and in vivo spread of HTNV to its target sites.