Development of a Model System for Analysing Graft‐versus‐Host‐Mediated Immune Suppression

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Abstract
F1, hybrid mice injected with parental T lymphocytes undergo a graft‐versus‐host (GvH) reaction, one of the consequences being a highly depressed cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte (CTL) potential against alloantigens and modified self antigens. In the present study we demonstrate that concanavalin A (Con A) can he used for analysing such GvH‐mediated immune suppression. Thus, both alloantigen‐ and Con A‐induced responses were reduced by approximately 80% in F1, suppressed (F1s) animals as compared to F1 control (F1c) mice, Although interleukin 2 (IL‐2) production was found to be reduced by approximately 50% it did not account for the reduced CTL response in F1s mice. The addition of IL‐2 to Con A‐stimulated F1s spleen cell cultures did not reconstitute the response. The results suggest that the suppressive mechanism operates by preventing a large fraction of Lyt‐2+ CTL precursors from acquiring IL‐2 reactivity. However, a small fraction of CTL precursors, escaped the suppression and differentiated into effector CTL.

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