Mechanism of formation of non-immune rosettes between guinea-pig thymus-derived lymphocytes and rabbit erythrocytes

Abstract

Several observations reported here suggest that spontaneous rosette formation between rabbit erythrocytes and guinea-pig T lymphocytes is mediated by natural anti-guinea-pig T-cell antibodies bound to the surface of the rabbit erythrocyte. First, normal rabbit sera frequently contain antibodies specifically cytotoxic for guinea-pig T lymphocytes. Second, the activity of rabbit erythrocytes in spontaneous rosette formation is reduced after incubation for 5 days at pH 6-1, but can be restored to levels seen with fresh erythrocytes by a brief incubation in normal rabbit serum containing natural anti-guinea-pig antibodies; normal serum absorbed with thymocytes does not restore activity to the erythrocytes. Third, the activity of rabbit erythrocytes in forming spontaneous rosettes can be specifically blocked by treatment with anti-allotype and heterologous anti-Ig sera.