Genetic Restriction of Polyclonal Stimulation of B Cell Proliferation by Antigen-Specific T Cell Clones

Abstract

Since the demonstration of immune response (Ir) gene effects in animal models (1), much interest has been centered on the identification of Ir gene products and the elucidation of the mechanisms of Ir gene functions.Studies using serological reagents, chimeras, lymphocyte functional assays and mutants (2–4) have all demonstrated that Ia is probably the Ir gene product itself. This is not surprising since Ia has been implicated in a number of cellular interaction processes, notably antigen presentation (5) and T-B cell collaboration (6). It is believed that Ia serves as self-recognition molecules in antigen responses and failure of foreign antigens to associate with a given set in Ia specificities results in unresponsiveness (4,7). Other mechanism that involve the generation of suppressor T cells have also been proposed (8).