Bronchoalveolar lavage cells and proteins in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. An immunologic analysis.

Several components of cellular and humoral immunity were examined in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and blood of 15 patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, and the results were compared to data from 25 healthy controls (including 5 asymptomatic homosexual men). Compared with that of controls, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients tended to have more lymphocytes and significantly more neutrophils; a lower OKT4/OKT8 ratio, due to an increase in total OKT8 cells; and normal total OKT4 cell counts, despite a significant decrease in numbers of OKT4 cells in peripheral blood. Patients also had significantly more IgG-releasing cells and higher IgG levels than controls in lavage fluid. These data show that, in the lung lining fluid of patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, significant alterations in cellular and humoral immunity exist that differ in several important respects from immunity in controls and from corresponding changes in patients' peripheral blood.