Most reports have indicated that T cells are restricted to self major histocompatibility complex (MHC) 1 determinants by radiation-resistant thymic epithelium (reviewed in 1 and 2), or by intrathymic bone marrow-derived cells (3-5). However, others (6-8) have presented evidence that this self-restriction is, at best, a relative phenomenon largely induced by peripheral priming. A major problem in the experimental analysis of this issue is the strong allo-response elicited by cross-haplotype stimulation. Three general methods have been used to remove alloreactive precursors prior to stimulation with non-MHC antigens in an H-2-different environment: (a) acute depletion of alloreactive cells by negative selection in vivo through allogeneic irradiated hosts, adsorption in vitro on allogeneic monolayers, or "suicide" of proliferating cells that have been stimulated with alloantigen; (b) construction of radiation and embryo-fusion chimeras; and (c) neonatal tolerance induction. The latter two approaches yield chronically tolerized cell populations.Acute depletion protocols have given conflicting results in the trinitrophenyl (TNP) system (9-12). Using a virus model, Bennink and Doherty (13,14) showed that potent H-2Kk-restricted, vaccinia-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) could be generated by H-2 d or H-2 b T cells that had been filtered through appropriate semiallogenic recombinant or F1 hosts and then stimulated with virus in the presence of H-2K k. However, the reciprocal negative selections did not result in comparable "aberrant" recognition; H-2 k T cells could not be stimulated with H-2b-vaccinia virus (15). Looking at the response to sheep erythrocytes, Sprent and von Boehmer (16) found no collaboration with allogeneic B cells by T cells that had been depleted of alloreactivity by negative selection in vivo. The situation for (k × b)Fl ----~b chimeras is also complex (17,18). Thymocytes from such animals show fairly precise restriction to H-2 b in their vaccinia-specific CTL response after stimulation in irradiated (k × b)F1 mice. However, with time, splenocytes from some of these chimeras show a marked increase in frequency of H-2k-restricted anti-vaccinia CTL precursors (CTL-P), emerging between 2 and 3 mo after reconstitution with bone marrow. In a series of experiments with neonatally tolerized mice, Forman et al.