Evidence for the endogenous production of T cell receptors bearing idiotypic determinants

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Abstract
Unprimed thymus‐derived (T) cells from spleens of either conventional TEPC 15+ (T15+) BALB/c mice or neonatally suppressed T15− BALB/c mice were used to reconstitute neonatally suppressed T15− BALB/c nude mice and conventional T15+ BALB/c nude mice, respectively. In so doing, the idiotypes produced by phosphorycholine (PC)‐specific bone marrow‐derived (B) cells were dissociated from idiotypes putatively produced by PC‐specific T cells. Subsequent to priming of the reconstituted BALB/c nude mice with either anti‐T15 antisera or PC‐MOPC 315, their splenic T cells were assessed for PC‐specific helper activity and expression of the T15 idiotype.Our results indicate that expression of the T15 idiotype by T cells as determined by (a) the ability to prime PC‐specific helper cells with anti‐T15 antibodies, and (b) the ability to inhibit PC‐specific helper function with anti‐T15 antibodies, depended on the idiotype of the unprimed donor T cell source and not that of the B cells in the reconstituted recipients. We conclude that the idiotype‐bearing T cell receptor specific for PC is not a passively adsorbed B cell product.

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