Ir GENE CONTROL OF T AND B CELL RESPONSES TO DETERMINANTS IN (Glu Lys Ala) TERPOLYMERS

Abstract

SUMMARY All mice responding to the terpolymer GLA40 make GL, GA and GLA specific antibodies irrespective of their response to GL or GA alone. The mice displayed positive T cell proliferative responses against the homologous terpolymer, but no T cell responses were obtained with GL, which is non‐immunogenic in mice. T cells from GLA immune mice, which are also responders to GA, such as mice of H‐2 haplotypes a, b, d, k and r, could be stimulated by GA. T cells from GLA immune mice of H‐2 haplotypes p and q which are non‐responders to GA could not be stimulated by GA. On the other hand, T cells from H‐2s mice immune to GLA and which are also responders to GA alone could not be stimulated by GA. Thus mice of H‐2 haplotypes p, q and s recognize the terpolymer via ‘GLA' determinants alone, whereas mice of H‐2 haplotypes a, b, d, k and r may recognize both GA and GLA determinants in GLA terpolymer.

Fine Specificities of the Murine T Cell Responses to (Glu Lys Ala) Terpolymers

“…All mice respond to a high dose (100 pg) of the GLA terpolymers. The specificities of antibodies obtained after immunization with GLAZ0, GLA40 and GLA60 were very similar, as judged by the reciprocal cross-reactions among the terpolymers, and the reactions with GA and GL copolymers (Merryman & Maurer, 1978;Babu et al,, 1984). Since the above random GLA terpolymers can theoretically possess many antigenic determinants, and since these epitopes can act either as immunogens or as haptens, the overall humoral responses of mice to GLA polymers are very heterogeneous as we have reported.…”

“…The influence of non-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes on the immune response is not without precedent. It has been shown that non-MHC genes played a regulatory role in the level of antibody responses to GLA40 in C57BL/10 mice (Babu et al, 1984). In this report, it is also shown that T cell function can also be subject to the same kind of influence.…”

“…T cells from the DBA/1 (H-24) mice failed to respond, although T cells from SWR mice, also of H-2q, showed good responses. In contrast to the above, DBA/1 mice responded to GLA40 as measured by the PFC assay (Babu et al, 1984). Therefore the response patterns of DBA/1 and SWR mice were studied further and results will be presented in the text.…”

“…Our previous studies have shown that following immunization with GLA40, immune T cells from different strains of mice can be stimulated by GLA5 and/or GA40 according to the respective immune response patterns of the mice to GLAS and GA40. The one exception was the responses of SJL mice (Babu et al, 1984). Although SJL mice respond to both GLA' and GA4', the GLA40 immune T cells failed to be stimulated by GA40 in the in vitro proliferative assay.…”

“…p o l y ( G 1~~~, L y s~~) , GL, and p o l y ( G l~~~, A l a~~) , GA40, as measured by antigen binding assay (Maurer & Merryman, 1978) or by plaque forming cell (PFC) assays (Babu et al, 1984).…”