Four patients with common, variable agammaglobulinemia were preveiously reported to have normal numbers of circulating B lymphocytes which synthesized normal amounts of IgG in tissue culture but failed to secrete the newly synthesized IgG. The B lymphocytes of these patients fail to incorporate [3H]mannose and/or [3H]glucosamine into newly synthesized IgG, whereas such incorporation appears to ...

GAMMAGLOBULINEMlA and extreme hypogam; maglobulinemia occur as concomitants of 'yeral human diseases. Depression of the serum ~roma glob~ concentration may occur be~use of loss of protein from the body, generaled failure of protein fabrication, inordinately . id destruction of serum protein, or because of -isolated deficit in gamma globulin synthesis, n the nephrotic syndrome, for example, hypo...

The pathogenic role of B cells in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has recently gained much interest by the marked clinical responses of anti-CD20 therapy in RA. We describe a patient with X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA) who presented with an erosive symmetrical polyarthritis with histological features of RA including formation of a destructive pannus. Furthermore, the patient also developed subcuta...

Phytohemagglutinin (PHA) has been shown to effect biochemical and morphologic changes in the small lymphocytes of normal human peripheral blood.1' 2 The percentage of morphologic transformation of small lymphocytes to blastlike cells on exposure to PHA is reduced in a variety of conditions associated with abnormalities of the lymphoid system, such as Hodgkin's disease, sarcoidosis, and chronic ...