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Functional characterization of T lymphocytes grown in semisolid agar

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Summary

T lymphocyte colony forming cells (TL-CFC) grown in agar in the presence of PHA were assayed for their capacity to induce or suppress polyclonal PWM dependent B lymphocyte differentiation into plasma cells. This was measured by identifying cells containing intracytoplasmatic immunoglobulins by direct immunofluorescence. To validate the helper and suppressor system used in this paper, the inductive capacity of unfractionated T lymphocytes and their subpopulations bearing Fc-receptors for IgM (TM) and for IgG (TG) was measured. The unfractionated T cells and the TM fraction showed helper activity, whereas the TG cells expressed suppressor activity. The TL-CFC grown in agar in the presence of PHA manifested helper activity at low cell concentration. However, increasing the TL-CFC concentration finally caused suppression of B cell differentiation. The suppressor effect could be abolished by prior irradiation of the TL-CFC before seeding them in agar.

These results indicate that T cells grown in agar have the functional capacity of T helper and T suppressor cells to induce and suppress polyclonal PWM dependent B lymphocyte differentiation into plasma cells.

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Abbreviations

PHA:

Phytohemagglutinin

TL-CFC:

T lymphocyte colony forming cells

SEN :

Sheep erythrocytes treated with neuraminidase

OE-IgG:

Ox erythrocytes coated with IgG

OE-IgM:

Ox erythrocytes coated with IgM

TM :

T lymphocytes with Fc receptor for IgM

TG :

T lymphocytes with Fc receptor for IgG

FCS:

Heat inactivated fetal calf serum

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Oncology, Departments of Internal Medicine and Clinical Investigation, University Hospital Basel, CH-4031, Basel, Switzerland

    Christian U. Ludwig, Marianne Troxler, Ruth Ludwig & Jean-Paul Obrecht

  2. Pharma Research Division, F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. Ltd., CH-4000, Basel, Switzerland

    Hansjörg K. Forster

Authors
  1. Christian U. Ludwig
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  2. Hansjörg K. Forster
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  3. Marianne Troxler
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  4. Ruth Ludwig
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  5. Jean-Paul Obrecht
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Additional information

This work was supported by Swiss National Foundation grant No. 3.847-0.79

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Ludwig, C.U., Forster, H.K., Troxler, M. et al. Functional characterization of T lymphocytes grown in semisolid agar. Blut 47, 185–193 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320837

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320837

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