Glandular Fever and Specific Viral Infections: Uptake of Tritiated Thymidine by Circulating Leucocytes

SUMMARY The circulating leucocyte nuclei in 20 out of 22 patients with glandular fever showed a raised level of uptake of tritiated thymidine in vitro. The uptake was confined to the glandular fever cells but in sonic cases it did not appear until the middle and late stages of the disease. In the few patients studied with the specific viral infection-mumps, measles and rubella-there was also increased thymidine labelling, but this was not seen in the two cases of chicken pox. This phenomenon in infections was similar to that seen in the reticuloses but was transient.