Abstract
BONE marrow-derived lymphocytes (B cells) can be triggered for antibody synthesis by a stimulus from immunocompentent allogeneic1 or xenogeneic2 lymphoid cells. The stimulus was shown to act directly on the B cell, since a response may occur in the absence of syngeneic thymus-derived lymphocytes (T cells)1 and is possible even to a hapten2. This observation has led to the hypothesis that cooperating T cells (T-helper) are identical to cytotoxic T cells (T-killer) and act on B cells by surveying them for immunogen bound to their cell surface3. The T cells recognise the cell-bound immunogen and emit a sublethal signal to the B cells, triggering them to produce antibody. But the question arises, whether this is the way triggering of B cells usually occurs in the immune response. Recent experiments have shown that T cells sensitised to foreign erythrocyte antigens are able to cooperate with B cells to induce humoral antibody synthesis, but are not able to perform cytotoxic lysis of erythrocyte target cells4,5. T helper cells therefore need not be cytotoxic to the sensitising antigen to trigger B cells. This finding led to more extensive experiments concerning the question of whether T killer and T helper functions are performed by the same cell or not.
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DENNERT, G. Evidence for non-identity of T killer and T helper cells sensitised to allogeneic cell antigens. Nature 249, 358–360 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/249358a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/249358a0
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