[Changes in T-cell subpopulations in normal pregnancy and in patients with spontaneous abortion]. / Veränderungen von T-Zell-Subpopulationen während der normalen Schwangerschaft und bei Patientinnen mit Spontanaborten.

From the immunological point of view, pregnancy is a privileged allograft, with complex mechanisms of adaptation within the maternal immune system preventing rejection. The importance of lymphocytes and their specific subsets for this mechanism is a controversial issue. This study was designed to examine changes within T-cell subsets during uneventful pregnancy and to evaluate their significance by comparison with findings in patients undergoing spontaneous pregnancy loss. When compared to non-pregnant control subjects, normal pregnant women showed significantly decreased numbers for peripheral T-lymphocytes, for helper/inducer-T-cells and for the helper/suppressor-T-cell ratio (T4/T8). In contrast, patients undergoing spontaneous abortion showed a significantly elevated T4/T8-ratio, if compared to normal pregnant women. The clinical relevance of these findings is uncertain. Nevertheless, in individual cases of spontaneous miscarriage, the analysis of T-cell subsets might indicate a possible immunological aetiology.

Automated determination of serum (plasma) and urine iron: a comparative investigation of chromogens improved tripyridyltriazine micromethod.

Four different, well known colour reagents for iron determination were tested in a citrate buffer at pH 2.0 under the same automated standard conditions and compared with a manual reference method on human serum and plasma samples. Specific results were obtained only with the chromogen tripyridyl-s-triazine. A micromethod was developed, which is generally well suited for automated, direct serum iron determinations, with respect to good flow properties, simple reagent composition, high reagent stability, rapid colour development, stable colour complex and high specificity. This method was run on either a Gilford System 203 S, Gilford Impact 400 or a Greiner G-400 analyser and adapted to the Technicon SMAC II, Technicon RA 1000, Eppendorf Epos and Abbott Spectrum automated systems. The tripyridyl-s-triazine method permits the determination of ferrioxamine iron in urine after a simple sample pretreatment.

Comparative histological, histochemical, immunohistochemical and biochemical studies on oestrogen receptors, lectin receptors, and Barr bodies in human breast cancer.

The present study performed on a total of 567 cases of human female breast cancer compares the results of the biochemical assay (dextran-coated charcoal assay = DCC) for oestrogen receptor (ER) with those of several morphological methods developed for the detection of the ER or for the prediction of prognosis by use of other systems (FSA = fluorescent ligand binding assay, ER-ICA = monoclonal antibody assay for ER, LRA = lectin receptor assay using peanut agglutinin, and Barr body estimation). Whereas no correlation at all was observed among the results of the DCC and those of the FSA and Barr body estimation, the ER-ICA and the LRA showed an unanimous tendency towards higher values of ER with increasing intensity of the staining product. The results of the ER-ICA may be expressed by an immuno-reactive score (IRS) calculated from the staining intensity (SI) and the percentage of positive cells (PP). The morphological methods are evaluated with special regard to their correlation with the DCC, their theoretical basis, and their practical application. In summary, the ER-ICA appears to be the sole method directly visualizing the ER protein and--in contrast to the DCC--is therefore completely independent of the content of endogenous or exogenous oestrogens in the tumor tissue. The LRA provides valuable additional information concerning tumour differentiation and possible response to endocrine therapy, whereas the FSA and Barr body estimation should be considered as obsolete and should therefore be abandoned.

[Detection of lymphocyte subpopulations in EDTA whole blood samples using flow cytometry. Stability and normal values]. / Bestimmung von Lymphozyten-Subpopulationen in EDTA-Vollblutproben im Durchflusszytometer. Stabilitäts- und Normalwertstudien.

Series of T-cell-specific monoclonal antibodies (OKT 11 for peripheral T-lymphocytes, OKT 4 for helper/inducer T-cells, OKT 8 for suppressor/cytotoxic T-cells), one B-cell-specific antibody (anti-LEU-10) and the antibody anti-LEU-7 for LGL/NK-cells were used to detect the distribution of different lymphocyte subpopulations in the peripheral blood of 60 healthy, clinically examined test persons. The flow cytometry was performed by means of direct immunofluorescence method. The statistical evaluation showed that the results in all three age groups studied did not essentially differ with the exception of the so-called natural killer cells which increase significantly with advancing years. The described method allows the dispatch of lymphocytes samples even from places far away and the analysis of the specimen within 36 to 48 h.