Specific and nonspecific cooperation between M-locus-incompatible T and B cells during adoptive anti-hapten antibody responses in mice

Abstract

CBA and AKR mice are identical at the major histocompatibility locus (H-2) but differ at the strong, non-H-2, mixed leukocyte culture (MLC)-stimulating M-locus. Adoptive secondary in vivo antibody responses using immune spleen cells from mice of these strains demonstrate two interesting findings. One is a non-specific augmentation of the anti-hapten antibody response of CBA B cells by AKR T cells. This allogeneic effect is unidirectional in the same sense as the MLC between cells from these two strains. The second is that, despite an ongoing allogeneic effect, M-locus-incompatible T and B cells show strong specific cooperation. Thus, it seems unlikely that the failure of H-2-incompatible T and B cells to collaborate specifically is due to inhibitory allogenic reactions.