Mitogen-induced lymphocyte transformation after general anaesthesia.

There is evidence that general anaesthesia interferes with the immune response in man (Bruce and Wingard, 1971). It may affect postoperative infections, anaphylaxis, response to organ transplantation and tumour growth. It has been speculated that there is a relationship between this immunosuppression and the development of postoperative hepatitis (Bruce and Wingard, 1971). Anaesthetists appear to have a higher death rate from malignancy of the lymphoid and reticuloendothelial tissues than many other doctors (Bruce et al., 1968). An increased incidence of still birth, abortion and foetal malformation among women anaesthetists is reported (Askrog and Harvald, 1970; Cohen, Bellville and Brown, 1971; Knill-Jones et al., 1972). In a recent study we found that halothane anaesthesia is able to suppress the function of T-lymphocytes in the chicken. It had no clear effect on humoral antibody response to a thymus-dependent or a thymus-independent antigen (Viljanen et al., 1973). The present work was intended to clarify the effects of three different types of general anaesthesia on human lymphocytes with special reference to the effect of halothane. The mitogenic response of lymphocytes before and after anaesthesia was studied with two different mitogens, phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and concanavalin A (con A).