<Originals>Determination of lymphocyte subsets in tonsillar diseases

Lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood and the tonsils of patients with tonsillar diseases were studied comparatively, the immune state was grasped according to tonsillar diseases and the findings were applied to the clinical practice. The subjects were 36 patients with tonsillar diseases consisting of 21 patients with habitual tonsillitis and 15 with focal infection. The lymphocyte subsets were determined by laser flow cytometry with a monoclonal antibodies. The kinds of lymphocyte subsets studied were CD4 (helper/inducer T cell), CD8 (suppressor/cytotoxic T cell), HLA-DR (active T cell, B cell) which were detected by the single-color method. Also, two other subsets detected by the two-color method, CD4^+・2H4^- (helper T cell) and bright CD8^+・CD11^+ (suppressor T cell), were used. When a comparison was made between the whole peripheral blood and the whole tonsils, the values of CD4 and CD8 in the peripheral blood were higher than those in the tonsils ; the values of CD4/8 and HLA-DR in the tonsils were higher than those in the peripheral blood. When the lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood and the tonsils were compared with each other in the patients with habitual tonsillitis, the results were the same with the relation between the whole peripheral blood and the whole tonsils. With the lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood and tonsils of the patients with focal infection, there was no difference in CD4 between the peripheral blood group and the tonsil group, because the CD4 level in the tonsils was higher in the focal infection group than in the habitual tonsillitis group. With CD4^+・2H4^-, the tonsil group showed higher value compared with the peripheral blood group ; the peripheral blood group exhibited higher value compared with the tonsil group with bright CD8^+・CD11^+. When the advantages of lymphocyte subsets were analyzed according to the diseases, a value under 1 of the CD4/8 ratio in the peripheral blood of the patients with habitual tonsillitis proved high infection. Furthermore, in the patients with focal infection, the state that the CD level in the tonsils was higher than that in the peripheral blood verified a high local immune activity. Thus, the comparative study of lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood and the tonsils in patients with tonsillar diseases led to grasp of the diseases.