PURE RED-CELL APLASIA - FURTHER EVIDENCE OF T-CELL CLONAL DISORDER

We report a patient with pure red cell aplasia and type I autoimmune polyglandular syndrome who also had an expansion of suppressor T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood. Southern blotting of DNA from these cells suggested T cell receptor (TCR) gamma gene rearrangement. We confirmed true clonality of this by amplification of the gene rearrangement using the polymerase chain reaction and subsequent analysis of the product by gene cloning and DNA sequencing.