The capacity of retinoic acid to modulate human T-lymphocyte and B-lymphocyte activation by mitogens was examined. T-lymphocyte proliferation stimulated by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) or phytohemagglutinin was enhanced by 5 nM to 5 microM retinoic acid in a dose-dependent manner with a 65 +/- 35% (SD) increase (n = 6, P less than 0.01) in TPA-stimulated proliferation induced by 5...