When a helper T-cell (TH) clone specific for the hemagglutinin, neuraminidase, matrix protein, or nucleoprotein of influenza strain A/PR/8/34 is adoptively transferred to athymic mice 1 day after virus infection the anti-viral antibody response of the mouse is enhanced. This response is directed predominantly to the hemagglutinin and requires associative T-cell-B-cell interactions. Delaying For a resting B cell to become activated and produce antibodies, a second signal, beyond the occupancy of its surface immunoglobulin receptor by antigen, is required (1, 2). This signal is in most cases provided by helper T cells (TH). Two types of T-cell help have been described (3, 4).Cognate help is major histocompatibility complex-restricted and requires that the antigenic determinants recognized by the B cell and by the T cell be covalently linked (5)(6)(7)(8). This type of help is thought to occur through a direct interaction between the TH and B cells and to result in the transduction of a signal to the B cell in the form of locally released factors and/or crosslinking of surface molecules. This signal enables the B cell to go on to proliferate and differentiate into an antibody-secreting B-cell clone (9-13). Bystander help, in contrast to cognate help, is thought to occur through the release of T-cell-derived factors that act nonspecifically on activated B cells (14)(15)(16)(17). No direct link between the antigenic determinants recognized by the T cell and the B cell is, therefore, required.
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