Acetylcholine receptor-specific suppressive T-cell factor from a retrovirally transformed T-cell line.

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Abstract
In both experimental and human myasthenia gravis an impairment in the immune regulation leads to an increased synthesis of antibodies against the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AcChoR). An AcChoR-specific suppressive T-cell line obtained by viral transformation of AcChoR-enriched murine T lymphocytes was established. Enriched T cells from Torpedo californica AcChoR-primed mice, prestimulated in vitro with antigen, were infected with radiation leukemia viruses and injected i.v. in congeneic recipient mice. Six months later lymphomas were observed in 20% of the injected mice and 2 of them, of donor origin, were established as permanent continuous cell lines in vitro. One of these lines, named LA41, expresses Thy-1.2, Lyt-2 and I-Jb surface markers. Culture supernatants of LA41 cells suppress the antigen-specific in vitro proliferation of Torpedo AcChoR-primed lymphocytes. This suppression is antigen-specific since the response induced by fetal calf AcChoR and by other antigens is not affected by addition of LA41 culture supernatant in the proliferative assay. LA41 culture supernatant injected in vivo at the time of antigen-priming supresses also significantly the production of anti-AcChoR antibodies but not the synthesis of antibodies against other antigens, i.e., fetal calf AcChoR or .alpha.-bungarotoxin. LA41 cells constitutively produce Torpedo AcChoR-specific suppressor factor.