RECIRCULATION OF LYMPHOCYTES: ITS ROLE IN IMPLEMENTING IMMUNE RESPONSES IN THE SKIN
Abstract
A number of recent investigations have suggested that
the subset of lymphocytes which migrate into non-
lymphoid tissue to appear in peripheral lymph may
be partly different from the major recirculating pool
migrating through lymphoid tissues. We report results
on the migration from the blood of thoracic duct
lymphocytes labelled with 51Cr and three subsets-
accredited recirculators, activated lymphocytes and
,long-lived" lymphocytes. The localization of these
populations was studied in normal skin, in a contact
sensitivity lesion and in a site of non-immune inflammation.
All four populations localized in the contact
sensitivity lesion in increased numbers compared to
normal skin but ,,long-lived" lymphocytes appeared
to discriminate between cell-mediated immunity and
non-immune inflammation; activated lymphocytes
migrated most efficiently into the non-immune inflammatory
site (Table 4 ).