Studies of Antibody Formation in Vitro and in Lethally Irradiated Reconstituted Mice

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Abstract
The reconstitutive capacity of normal lymphoid cells versus cells obtained from mice immunized with keyhole limpet haemocyanin was studied in lethally irradiated syngeneic recipients using horse erythrocytes as the test antigen. Evidence was obtained for an immune deficiency in the inoculum from immune donors, which was interpreted as evidence in favour of a cellular mechanism to account for antigen‐induced suppression (‘antigenic competition’). The unexpected inhibition of reconstitution with excessive numbers of normal spleen cells was duplicated in experiments using thymus or thymus‐derived cells. Experiments assessing the effect of cortisone‐resistant thymus cells on the response of normal spleen cells, in vivo and in vitro, gave evidence that a relative surplus of such thymus cells possess a capability for suppressing antibody formation. Since helper function by T cells is now well documented, this work is further indicative of the broader view, namely immuno‐regulation by T cells.