Lymphocyte cytotoxicity was reduced in subjects with spinal cord injury.

NK-cell lysis of K562 cells (A) and T-cell lysis of allogeneic lymphocytes (B) were significantly (*) reduced at all effector-to-target cell ratios tested when cells from paraplegics or tetraplegics were compared with those of controls. Values are mean and SEM, n = 6. The specific lysis of autologous lymphocytes was negligible in all 3 study groups, and these results were pooled for these groups (ie, n = 18).