Rosette-Forming Cells, Immunologic Deficiency Diseases and Transfer Factor

Abstract

Lymphocytes from peripheral blood of normal subjects and of patients with various immunologic deficiency diseases were studied to determine the percentage able to bind with sheep erythrocytes in a formation called a rosette. These rosette-forming cells represent thymus-derived cells. Patients with Nezelof syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, and chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, all diseases with defects in cellular immunity, had low percentages of these cells. Six patients with acquired hypogammaglobulinemia, a defect in humoral immunity, had normal numbers. Three patients with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome responded clinically and immunologically to administration of transfer factor, and these patients showed significant increases in rosette-forming cells. One patient with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome and those with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis who did not respond to transfer factor did not show increases in rosette-forming cells.