The effect of alloantisera on antigen-induced T cell proliferation

In the guinea pig, alloantisera raised by cross-immunization of strain 2 and strain 13 animals are capable of specifically inhibiting the in vitro proliferative response of (2 X 13)F1 T lymphocytes to those antigens the response to which is controlled by Ir genes linked to the genes controlling the alloantigens against which the serum is directed. However, in similar studies performed in the two parental strains, the responses to antigens not known to be under unigenic control were also markedly inhibited by the appropriate alloantisera. We have extended our studies of this "nonspecific" inhibitory effect of alloantisera on T cell proliferation and have demonstrated that the proliferative response of strain 2 and strain 13 T cells to a large number of antigens is markedly inhibited by anti-2 and anti-13 sera, respectively. Antisera to the B alloantigen, the product of a linked but distinct histocompatibility locus, which is present in both strain 2 and strain 13 animals, also produced a marked inhibition of T-lymphocyte proliferation. A number of possible explanations for the generalized inhibitory effect of alloantisera on T cell proliferation are discussed.