Using various types of monoclonal antibodies and flow cytometer, whole blood analysis were conducted on subsets of lymphocytes taken from peripheral blood samples of healthy persons and umbilical cord blood samples of mature babies.
The findings were as follows:
(1) Normal values of healthy persons (Mean ± SD) were: T-cell phenotypes-OKT3⁺: 66.2 ± 9.4%, OKT4⁺: 40.9±8.3%, OKT8⁺: 28.2±6.6%, OKT11⁺: 80.1±4.8%, OKT4/OKT8 ratio: 1.57±0.60; B-cell phenotype-SmIg (polyvalent) ⁺: 15.9±6.5%; others-OKTal⁺: 12.9±3.2%, Leu7⁺: 16.2±8.9%.
(2) Of the healthy persons, 17% showed 1.0 or below and 6.5% showed 2.5 or above, in the OKT4/OKT8 ratio.
(3) The OKT4+ OKT8/OKT3 ratio was significantly high (P<0.001) in the babies and persons of 40 years and over.
(4) Physiologic variations were noted in some degree in children and the aged, and between men and women. The individual values of the lymphocyte subsets were almost constant, but the difference between individuals was large. It is suggested that the difference of the immune response of each individual or each family partly depends on the different values of the lymphocyte subsets.