Transfer of immediate hypersensitivity by lymphocytes from blood of ragweed-sensitive patients

Studies were made to determine whether intradermal implants of viable lymphocytes would transfer the immediate type of hypersensitivity to ragweed. Suspensions of lymphocytes were prepared from tuberculin-positive regweed hay fever patients by drawing 150 ml. of blood. Yields of approximately 1 ml. containing about 90,000 to 100,000 lymphocytes per cubic millimeter were obtained. Lymphocytic cellular-transfer sites were established in 6 nonallergic tuberculin-negative recipients by injecting, intradermally, 0.1 ml. of the lymphocyte suspension within 5 hours. Control sites of 0.1 ml. of the last saline washings obtained in preparing the lymphocyte suspension and P-K transfer sites with the donors' sera were also injected. Lymphocyte cell, P-K, and control sites were tested with ragweed and read within 15 minutes for immediate reactions. A lymphocyte cell-transfer site and a remote skin area were tested with PPD and read in 48 hours. Immediate whealing reactions to ragweed at the lymphocyte cell sites were shown in 3 of 6 recipients; in 2, the reaction was equivocal and in one, negative. Positive tuberculin reactions developed at the lymphocyte cell sites in 3 of 6 recipients, and 2 of these 3 also reacted to tuberculin at remote areas. These studies indicate that the immediate type of hypersensitivity may be transferred by intradermal lymphocyte cell transfer, as well as the delayed type.