CELLS IN LYMPH DRAINING NORMAL HUMAN SKIN-MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY ANALYSIS

Abstract

The immune cells which migrate into the human
skin from the blood and subsequently leave it via
lymph vessels play an important role in immune
processes. We made use of the monoclonal anti bodies,
characterizing cell populations which migrate
into the normal sk in and which having traversed the
tissue, could be recovered from the afferent lymph
vessels. The percentage of OKM1 + cells (monocytes/
macrophages, null cells) in lymph was low (8.9 ±
1.6 %) when compared to that of blood (16.5 ±
4.6%) (p < 0.05). The OKM1 antibody labeled only
40% of the large macrophage·like lymph cells. The
percentage of OKT3+ (T cells) in lymph was higher
(75.4 ± 4.0 %) than in blood (54.0 ± 4.5 %) (p <
0.05) as was that of the OKT4+ (inducer/helper)
subset (41 .5 ± 9.5 and 33.3 ± 4.8 %, p < 0.05),
while cells of the OKT8+ (suppressor/cytotoxic)
subset were found to be less numerous in lymph
than in blood . (18.4±6.2%and 20.3±4.9%, p<0.05).
The OKI a1 +cell population consisted of large veiled
macrophage-like cells and only very few small cells.
Around 60% of the large mononuclear cells present
in lymph reacted with OKT6 antibody specific for
cort ical thymocytes. The finding of high proportions
of T cells, cells bearing la-like antigens, and
a high inducer/suppressor ratio in normal prenodal
lymph reflects the intensity of "physiological" immune
processes in the normal skin.