T and B peripheral blood lymphocytes in normal and lymphocytotic sheep.

Surface immunoglobulins (SIg), Peanut Agglutinin (PNA), spontaneous erythrocyte rosette (E-rosette) and Helix pomatia (HP) marker were investigated in normal and Bovine leukemia virus (BLV)-infected sheep. In normal sheep, 19.3% +/- 4.9 of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were SIg+, whereas 58% +/- 5.69 were PNA+, and 19.6 +/- 5.2 were E-rosette forming cells (E-RFC). In BLV-induced lymphocytotic sheep, SIg+ cells in PBL reached 59.4% +/- 15.06. In the same animals, PNA bound to 20.6% +/- 9.69 and E-RFC were 8.7% +/- 4.5. A panning technique was applied with an anti sheep-immunoglobulins coated plates to separate SIg+ (adherent cells = A) and SIg- cells (non-adherent cells = NA). The (A) population was 94-95% SIg+ cells and 2-3% PNA+, while the (NA) population was 0-4% SIg+ and 79-85% PNA+ cells. Thus PNA is a T cell marker in sheep species. HP, a marker for bovine T lymphocytes was also studied. Sheep PBL do not bind to HP. However, after panning separation about 50% of NA cells became HP+.