| Abstract: | Carrier-primed cells, having some of the properties of T lymphocytes, have been found to inhibit the primary anti-hapten response of spleen cells to challenge with a hapten carrier conjugate. The antibody response of CBA/Igb spleen cells in irradiated CBA (Iga) recipients was measured by means of a radioimmunoassay using 125I-labeled anti-Igb antibody. It was found that the primary anti-2,4,6-trinitrophenyl(TNP) response to TNP-KLH (keyhole limpet hemocyanin) was suppressed in recipient mice primed with KLH as compared with similarly treated unprimed or bovine serum albumin-primed recipients. This suppression was transferred by injection of 108 spleen cells from CBA mice primed with KLH seven days beforehand, but not by injection of serum from such mice. The suppressive effect was abolished by treating the carrier-primed spleen cells with anti-T cell sera and complement before transfer. Priming with KLH seven days beforehand had only a small suppressive effect on the response to an unrelated antigen, DNP-ovalbumin, but there was marked suppression if KLH was again administered with the unrelated antigen. It is considered that the suppressive effect is specific in induction, but nonspecific in expression and that it is a manifestation of a homeostatic mechanism limiting the extent of the immune response. |
