An Immunological Study on Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome: Activation of Tg Suppressor Cells

We analyzed the lymphocyte function of MCLS in pokeweed mitogen-induced immunoglobulin production. T cell suppressor activity was activated in the acute phase adn normalized in convalescence. T cells showing suppressor activity in this system were identified to be Tg cells, and they seemed to be activated as suppressor by a certain factor in the serum. the sera of patients whose T cells showed suppressor activity could induce the suppresoor activity of normal control Tg cells. The suppressor inducing factor in sera is likely to be circulating immune complexes, since T_g cells usually show suppressor activity when they interact with immune complexes. The induction of the suppressor activity of Tg cells by immune complexes may provide a kind of negative feedback suppression mechanism feedback mechanism on the antibody formation and it may be related to the self-limiting characteristics of MCLS. MCLS is different from collagen diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis in that Tg cells do not usually work as suppressor cells in the later diseases.