Lymphocyte membrane receptors in human lymphoid leukemias.

Membrane-bound immunoglobulins, receptors for the Fc fragment of IgG and receptors for the third component of human or murine complement were used as B cell membrane markers to study peripheral blood lymphocytes from twenty-two patients with chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL), five patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and one patient with Sézary syndrome. The capacity of human T cells of forming "spontaneous rosettes" with sheep erythrocytes was employed as T cell membrane marker. In nineteen out of twenty-seven CLL or ALL cases tested a larger percentage of cells than that found in normal individuals expressed at least one of the three B cell membrane markers studied. In the patient with Sézary syndrome the percentage of cells forming "spontaneous rosettes" with sheep erythrocytes was larger than the normal, while cells bearing B cells markers were below the normal values.