Infectious Mononucleosis: In Vitro Evidence for Limited Lymphoproliferation

The persistence of circulating leukocytes with potential for long-term in vitro proliferation was investigated in patients with heterophile-positive infectious mononucleosis. The ability to isolate long-term suspension cultures from peripheral blood with selective technics was a transient phenomenon for each patient studied, disappearing with a return of clinical and laboratory parameters toward the normal state. There was no close correlation between the ability to isolate cell lines and clinical, morphologic, biosynthetic or serologic manifestations of disease.