Lymphocytes isolated from the peripheral blood and from
tumor tissues of patients with African
Burkitt's lymphoma have been studied for cap formation and agglutinability by
Concanavalin A (Con A). Peripheral blood from healthy adult persons served as a normal control and blood from patients with
carcinoma served as a non-
lymphoma control. These studies included 29 patients with
Burkitt's lymphoma, 93 with
carcinoma, and 105 healthy adult persons, as well as
tumor tissues from 13 patients with
Burkitt's lymphoma. The great majority of the
carcinomas were from the face and neck regions. Lymphocytes from the blood of the majority of patients with
Burkitt's lymphoma, as well as those from
tumor tissues, exhibited a reduced cap-forming ability (2-6%) and increased Con-A-induced agglutinability compared to lymphocytes from healthy normal donors and from patients with
carcinoma, although some of the lymphocytes from patients with
carcinoma had a somewhat lower range of cap formation than the lymphocytes from healthy donors. No difference was observed in the interaction with Con A of lymphocytes from the different types of
carcinoma studied. Eight lymphoid cell lines were established in our laboratory from the
tumor tissues of patients with
Burkitt's lymphoma. The cap-forming ability and agglutinability by Con A of these lines was examined and compared to those of the "classical"
lymphoma lines: Raji, Daudi and P3HR1. All cell lines exhibited an increased Con-A-induced agglutinability and a reduced cap-forming ability compared to normal lymphocytes, except for P3HR1 cells which exhibited a cap-forming ability of 15-20%. These findings are discussed in relation to the association of the lymphocytes with
malignancy and as a possible aid in the differential diagnosis between
malignant lymphomas and other diseases.