Evidence for altered density characteristics of the peripheral blood lymphocytes in kwashiorkor

Peripheral blood lymphocytes obtained from Ficoll-Hypaque gradient separation from 15 kwashiorkor children and 14 controls were separated into fractions by centrifuging (900 × g, 10C) through discontinuous bovine serum, albumin gradients of 17, 20, 24, 28, 30, and 36 percent bovine serum albumin solutions. The top two fractions were pooled and designated fraction A and the remaining fractions were designated B, C, and D, respectively. Lymphocytes from kwashiorkor showed a marked alteration in density distribution in that a vast majority of them (57%) settled to the lowermost fraction (D) as against 17% in controls. Using nonimmune sheep erythrocyte adherence (erythrocyte-rosettes) as a T-cell marker and erythrocyte antibody complement rosettes specific for C3 receptor as a B-cell marker it is shown that, in addition to a reduction in the proportion of erythrocyte-rosetting lymphocytes there is a marked increase in their density. There is no significant alteration either in the proportion or in the density characteristics of the erythrocyte antibody complement-rosetting lymphocytes. The vast majority of nonrosetting lymphocytes (“null cells”) also settled in the fraction with the highest density. The findings warrant further studies on the density characteristics of lymphocytes and their characterization using a wider range of surface markers in kwashiorkor, particularly after nutritional status of the children had returned to normal.