T cell regulation of B cell activation. I-A-restricted T suppressor cells inhibit the major histocompatibility complex-restricted interactions of T helper cells with B cells and accessory cells.

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The present studies were carried out to characterize the cellular interactions involved in the activation and function of the antigen-specific and antigen-nonspecific T suppressor (Ts) cells that regulate the IgG responses of Lyb-5-B cells. The in vitro activation of both Lyt-1+2- antigen-nonspecific Ts cells and Lyt-1-2+ antigen-specific Ts cells was shown to require the interaction of accessory cells and antigen-primed T cells. It was further demonstrated that this interaction was major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restricted in that T cell recognition of I-A-encoded determinants on accessory cells was required for Ts cell activation. The activation of antigen-primed (A X B)F1 T cells with antigen in the presence of parentA or parentB accessory cells resulted, respectively, in the generation of parentA-restricted or parentB-restricted Ts cells. ParentA-restricted F1 Ts cells suppressed the responses generated by (A X B)F1 T helper (Th) cells cooperating with parentA (B + accessory) cells but did not suppress responses by the same (A X B)F1 Th cell population cooperating with parentB (B + accessory) cells. Neither parentA-restricted Ts cells alone nor parentB-restricted Ts cells alone suppressed the responses of (A X B)F1 (B + accessory) cells, whereas a mixture of these two Ts cell populations was able to significantly suppress the responses of F1 (B + accessory) cells. In contrast, responses of (A X B)F1 leads to parentA Th cells (restricted to recognizing parentA but not parentB MHC determinants on F1 cells) and (A X B)F1 (B + accessory) cells was suppressed by parentA-restricted Ts cells but not by parentB-restricted Ts cells. Collectively these findings suggest that the Ts cell populations characterized here do not function by directly inhibiting the activity of Th cells, B cells or accessory cells of a given MHC genotype, but rather that they appear to function through a unique mechanism involving highly specific inhibition of the interaction between MHC-restricted Th cells and the (B + accessory) cells required for these responses.

This publication has 35 references indexed in Scilit: