Abstract
The adherent cell fraction (AdC) of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM) contains two cell types of opposing function in vitro. Dendritic cells (DC) act as antigen-presenting cells (APC) in vitro, while monocytes (Mo) have a suppressive effect on antigen activation of T cells. in this report we show that patients with cervical carcinoma have a significantly increased number of suppressive Mo compared with healthy controls. the T cell response to Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1) and PPD was about the same in the two groups, but after removal of Mo by adherence a significantly higher T cell response was seen among the patients with advanced stage (Figo stage IIb–IVa) compared with patients in early stage (Figo stage Ia–IIa) and healthy controls. These observations indicate that patients with cervical carcinoma have 1) an increased number of T cells reactive with HSV, and 2) normal DC function. the relative suppression expressed on a per Mo basis was the same in all groups, which indicates that the increased suppression in the patients was caused by an increased number of Mo, and not by changes in their activation state.
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