Role of B lymphocytes in cell-mediated immunity. I. Requirement for T cells or T-cell products for antigen-induced B-cell activation.

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Although B [bone marrow-derived] lymphocytes can be triggered by B-cell mitogens and by certain other molecules to produce lymphokines, they do not produce lymphokines when stimulated with specific soluble protein antigens. These experiments were done to investigate whether [guinea-pig] T[thymus-derived]-cell help would enable B cells to produce lymphokines when activated by antigens [dinitrophenylated ovalbumin, tetanus toxoid]. Addition of small numbers of T cells to B-cell cultures resulted in significant production of a monocyte chemotactic factor. T cells could be replaced by supernates of antigen-stimulated T cells, demonstrating that the chemotactic factor was B-cell-derived and that T-cell help was mediated by a soluble factor. Although the T-cell factor was nonantigen specific, B-cell activation required the presence of antigen and T-cell factor. Although dependent upon T cells, B lymphocytes may play an important role in amplification of cell-mediated immune responses.

This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit: