LYMPHOCYTE SUBPOPULATIONS OF BLOOD AND PLEURAL EXUDATE IN MBT-NEGATIVE AND MBT-POSITIVE TUBERCULOUS PLEURISY

Abstract

Subpopulation indices of peripheral blood and pleural exudate lymphocytes have been studied in the patients with various clinical variants of a tuberculous pleurisy. It has been shown that, in patients with both MBT-negative and MBT-positive variants of tubercular pleurisy, decreased quantity of CD3- and CD4-positive lymphocytes was observed, whereas an increase in numbers of CD8+ and CD16+ lymphocytes was more pronounced in the persons with MBT-negative pleurisy. In pleural exudates from the patients with tubercular pleurisy, the numbers of CD3+ lymphocytes proved to be significantly higher than their contents in peripheral blood. It may be assumed that lymphocytosis in pleural exudates results from migration of the cells from peripheral blood into pleural cavity. It is revealed that, during exudative pleurisy of tuberculosis origin, T-cells with CD4+ and CD8+ phenotype are more likely subject to migration into pleural cavity, accomplished by additional migration of CD16+ lymphocytes in MBT-positive cases of pleurisy.

Keywords

• tuberculous pleuritis
• lymphocytes
• lymphocyte subsets
• blood
• pleural exudate