T lymphocyte colony-forming capacity of patients with immunodeficiency diseases: relationship of colony formation to E rosette formation and lymphocyte proliferation.

The formation of T lymphocyte colonies was studied in 30 normal subjects and 12 patients with suspected abnormalities in immune function. The mean number of colonies per plate in normal subjects was 1.159 +/- 411 which represented a plating efficiency of 0.5-1.0%. When individual cells from colonies of these normal subjects were studied for membrane markers, greater than 90% were E rosette-positive and less than 1% were positive for surface immunoglobulins. Blood lymphocytes obtained from all 12 patients showed diminished colony-forming capacity when compared to normal subjects with a range of 0-311 colonies. Six patients had less than 50 colonies/plate. Colony formation was diminished in some patients who had normal E rosette formation and lymphocyte proliferation in liquid culture. Because of these discrepancies it appears that colony formation is not a direct reflection of E rosette formation and lymphocyte proliferation. Evaluation of T lymphocyte colony-forming capacity may prove useful as an additional in vitro assessment of lymphocyte function.