The HNK-1 (Leu-7) monoclonal antibody was used to enumerate and characterize the level of blood granular lymphocytes in 247 cancer patients. The results were compared to 146 control individuals. A fluorescence-activated cell sorter was used to purify blood HNK-1+ cells from cancer patients. The monoclonal antibody identified a homogeneous population of granular lymphocytes with greater than 95% purity. Conversely, virtually 100% of HNK-1- cells from cancer patients were agranular lymphocytes. These results were the same as previously observed in normal individuals, where the HNK-1+ cell fraction contained all the lymphocytes with spontaneous cytotoxicity in natural killer (NK) and killer (K) cell assays. The level of HNK-1+ cells in cancer patients correlated significantly with the patient's age and sex, with older individuals having higher levels and male patients containing a higher proportion than female patients. The levels in the cancer patients were significantly lower than normal controls (p = 0.04). When the results were subdivided by the histologic type of cancer, additional differences were noted. Compared to age and sex-matched controls, significantly depressed levels of HNK-1+ granular lymphocytes were observed in 49 patients with colon cancer (9.7% vs. 15.8%, p = 0.0001), 18 patients with lung carcinoma (11.7% vs. 27.0%, p = 0.0001), 24 patients with breast carcinoma (12.0% vs. 15.5%, p = 0.04) and 64 patients with head and neck carcinoma (15.9% vs. 19.1%, p = 0.05). However, there were no significant differences overall in the average HNK-1+ cell level of 66 patients with melanoma (13.0% vs. 13.5%, p = 0.75) and nine patients with sarcomas (15.8% vs. 14.3%, p = 0.71). Thus, this important subpopulation of granular lymphocytes with NK and K cell function was significantly depressed in most cancer patients. Accounting for the patient's age and sex and the histologic type of cancer was critical to interpreting the results.

Nine strains of motile, anaerobic, nonsporeforming, gram-negative bacteria were isolated from human lesions of adult and juvenile periodontitis and compared with type strains Fusobacterium plauti ATCC 29863, Selenomonas sputigena ATCC 33150, Selenomonas ruminantium ATCC 12561, and Pectinatus cerevisiiphilus ATCC 29359. The cells of our isolates were long and serpentine and appeared to be bilaterally flagellated when they were examined by dark-field microscopy, giving the cells a centipede-like appearance. Electron microscopic studies showed the presence of a linear zone of flagellar insertions which spiraled around the cell body. Cultures were fermentative and produced propionic, acetic, lactic, and succinic acids. The guanine-plus-cytosine contents of the deoxyribonucleic acids of three isolates ranged from 52 to 54 mol%, as determined by the thermal denaturation method. All strains had 58 to 100% deoxyribonucleic acid homology with one another, but only 14% or less homology with the deoxyribonucleic acids of three previously described species. We propose the name Centipeda periodontii gen. nov., sp. nov. for these organisms; strain LL2383 (= ATCC 35019) is the type strain.We isolated several strains of relatively large, anaerobic, motile, rod-shaped bacteria from subgingival lesions of patients with periodontitis. Isolates having similar morphologies were obtained frequently from samples taken from diseased sites, but not from samples from healthy sites. In their characteristics these isolates resembled the original description of Fusobacterium plauti (Eubacterium plautii [6]) (10). We compared our isolates with the type strains of F. plauti, Selenomonas sputigena, Selenomonas ruminantium and Pectinatus cerevisiiphilus, the species which they most closely resembled. Our results indicate that the new isolates should be assigned to a new genus and species, for which we propose the name Centipeda periodontii.(Some of the results were presented at the 60th Session of the International Association for Dental Research, New Orleans, La., March 1982, abstr. no. 474, where the organism described in this paper was described as Centipeda orale .) MATERIALS AND METHODSCulture isolation. Isolates were obtained from subgingival scrapings from two patients (ages, 41 and 42 years) with adult periodontitis and three patients (ages, 12, 12, and 17 years) with localized juvenile periodontitis.Microbial sampling. Subgingival debris was collected with a sterile periodontal curette (Gracey type 11/12) and immediately transferred to a prereduced dispersion medium (1 5 ) modified to contain fullstrength Ringer solution without sodium metaphosphate and a final resazurin concentration of 7.5 x lo-'%. The samples were dispersed anaerobically with a modified glass tissue homogenizer and serially diluted in prereduced dispersion medium, and 0.1-ml portions were plated onto Trypticase-soy agar containing 5% sheep blood (BBL Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, Md.). The plates were incubated at 35°C in an anaerobic chamber containing an 80...

13 patients with untreated adult periodontitis (AP) were compared to 8 subjects free of periodontal disease (H) with respect to plaque index (PlI), gingival index (GI), probing depth (PD) and differential counts of subgingival bacterial morphotypes from a pooled sample of 6 surfaces with the greatest probing depth. Serum antibody levels to T. vincentii and T. denticola strains were also determined in these subjects as well as in the sera from 5 subjects with localized juvenile periodontitis (LJP). Subjects with AP had significantly elevated proportions of spirochetes and motile rods and lower proportions of coccoid cells than H subjects. They also exhibited significantly higher PlI and GI scores and greater probing depths. Antibody levels were normalized against a standard serum and expressed as ELISA units (EU). IgA and IgG antibody levels to all tested spirochete strains were significantly elevated in AP subjects as compared to subjects in group H or subjects with LJP. No significant differences in antibody titers were detectable between the H and LJP groups with respect to any of the tested strains. No significant correlation could be demonstrated between serum antibody titers to any of the oral spirochete strains tested and the proportions of oral spirochetes determined microscopically.

The proliferative response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to the mitogens PHA and Con A significantly depressed in 86% of 45 head and neck cancer patients compared with 44 normal controls. This depression of immune competence was greatest in older patients and in those with more advanced disease stages. The abnormal mitogen responses could be restored toward normal (especially with Con A stimulation) by incubating the cells with either of two prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors (indomethacin or RO-205720). This augmentation of immune response was independent of other factors, including the primary tumor site, disease stage, treatment (surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy) or the patients's age or race. The most likely explanation for this depressed level of immunocompetence was an excessive production of PGE2 by suppressor cells. This was confirmed by the finding that PBMC from patients produced more PGE2 than PBMC from normal individuals (8.4 ng/ml vs. 5.2 ng/ml, p=0.002). This difference was greatest among patients less than 60 years of age whose cultured PBMC produced 91% more PGE2 than controls (p less than 0.0007). Virtually all of the PGE2 was produced by a population of monocytes defined by a monoclonal antibody and purified with a fluorescence-activated cell sorter. Patients with epidermoid cancer of the head and neck thus have an abnormality of immunoregulatory monocytes that can contribute significantly to their depression of cellular immunity by elaborating prostaglandin E2. This abnormality could be partially corrected in vitro by incubating their PMBC with a prostaglandin synthetase inhibitor.