Rosetting of human T lymphocytes with goat red blood cells: Effect of treatment with 2-aminoethylisothiouronium bromide (AET) and comparison with AET treated sheep red blood cells
Department of Molecular Immunology, Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, 10666 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, U.S.A.
Abstract:
In vitro treatment of goat red blood cells (GRBCs) with the sulphydryl compound 2-aminoethylisothiouronium bromide (AET) increases their specific reactivity with human T lymphocytes without affecting the specificity of the reaction. AET-GRBCs bind to only part of T lymphocytes rosetting with AET-sheep red blood cells (SRBCs): the receptors for both types of RBCs are very similar if not identical, but display higher affinity for AET-SRBCs than for AET-GRBCs. Rosetting of T lymphocytes with AET-GRBCs may be useful to enumerate T lymphocyte subsets in patients with abnormality of the immune system and to fractionate T lymphocyte subpopulations.