Immunoglobulin production in cultures of human peripheral blood lymphocytes upon stimulation with various killed...

Formalin killed Staphylococci (S. epidermidis, S. saprophyticus and six different strains of S. aureus) were used as inducers of immunoglobulin production in cultures of human peripheral blood lymphocytes. These strains differed in cell wall composition which raised a question what cell wall constituent is responsible for induction of the response. All strains except S. epidermidis induced the response in cultures of unseparated peripheral blood lymphocytes but only some of them were able to trigger immunoglobulin production in T-cell depleted cultures. The obtained results suggest that peptidoglycan is most likely responsible for stimulatory activity of Staphylococci while the presence of protein A reduces the T-cell dependency of the response.