Generation of CFU-c suppressor T cells. VI. Effect of cyclosporin A

CFU-c suppressor T cells were generated in vitro by culturing overnight peripheral blood T cells from healthy donors with pokeweed mitogen (PWM), or T cells from patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) in remission, with culture medium (RPMI). The supernatants were removed the next morning, the cells harvested and washed, and both tested for CFU-c suppression on normal marrow cells. Cyclosporin A (CyA) was added to this system to test whether it could abrogate or prevent the generation of suppressor cells. CyA was incubated with T cells, at a concentration of 0.1 microgram/ml, for 30 min at 37 degrees C and then washed away, in two different assays: (a) before T cells were incubated overnight in culture medium with or without PWM, or (b) after T cells had been kept overnight in culture. The results of this study indicate that CyA can prevent the generation of CFU-c suppressor T cells if preincubated with both normal or SAA T cells prior to in vitro priming, whereas it cannot abrogate the suppressor activity of primed T cells.