Lymphocyte transformation induced by autologous cells: XVIII. Impaired autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction in subjects with AIDS-related complex.

T cells from patients with AIDS-related-complex (ARC) and normal controls were studied for their proliferative response in the autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction (AMLR). Cells from ARC subjects failed to proliferate in autologous MLR compared to normal controls. This defect was not attributable to an altered ratio of T4 to T8 cells, as purified T4 cells from ARC subjects also failed to proliferate in autologous mixed lymphocyte culture. In contrast, T cells from ARC subjects proliferated normally in response to allogeneic non-T cells, and non-T cells from ARC patients stimulated allogeneic T cells as well as did non-T cells from normal controls. Furthermore, there was no significant alteration in the 2H4 (suppressor-inducer) or 4B4 (helper-inducer) subsets of the T4 cell population in these patients. We conclude that an early immunologic defect that accompanies HTLV-III infection is a loss of the T cell response to autologous non-T cells.