Clinical immunological study of T lymphocytes and EA rosette forming cells in tonsils.

Tonsillar E and EA rosette forming lymphocyte subpopulations were studied in 120 tonsillectomized patients. T cell ratios was usually lower in the tonsils than in the blood. EA binding cells were studied with indicator systems of human or rabbit antibody sensitized red cells, respectively. Poorly sensitized human RBCs (EArabbit) bind much better to tonsillar cells than to blood lymphocytes and so this system proved to be specially suitable to study tonsillar EA binding cells. Increase in E and EA rabbit rosette forming cell frequencies were found with the age of patients. Decrease in percentage of T cells and EA rabbit rosette binding cells were found with high frequency of acut tonsillitis and with clinical sysmptoms of chronic local inflammation. The variation of these lymphocyte subpopulations with the local tonsillar inflammatory processes suggest a considerable clinical immunological role of local T cells and of this portion of Fc receptor postive lymphocytes.