Immunoregulatory lymphokines of T hybridomas from AIDS patients: constitutive and inducible suppressor factors

Abstract

Supernatants derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures of certain patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or its prodromes have the capacity to block T cell-dependent immune reactivity in vitro. T cells derived from a patient positive for antibody to the lymphadenopathy associated virus ( LAV ), and elaborating high titers of these soluble suppressor factors, were fused to a mutagenized clone of the human T lymphoblastoid cell line KE37 . Molecules capable of profoundly depressing T cell-dependent polyclonal antibody production and DNA synthetic responses, either directly or after incubation with normal adherent cells, were isolated from stable hybrid clones.