Evidence for the endogenous production of T cell receptors bearing idiotypic determinants.
Unprimed thymus-derived (T) cells from spleens of either conventional TEPC 15+ (T15+) BALB/c mice or neonatally suppressed T15- BALB/c mice were used to reconstitute neonatally suppressed T15- BALB/c nude mice and conventional T15+ BALB/c nude mice, respectively. In so doing, the idiotypes produced by phosphorycholine (PC)-specific bone marrow-derived (B) cells were dissociated from idiotypes putatively produced by PC-specific T cells. Subsequent to priming of the reconstituted BALB/c nude mice with either anti-T15 antisera or PC-MOPC 315, their splenic T cells were assessed for PC-specific helper activity and expression of the T15 idiotype. Our results indicate that expression of the T15 idiotype by T cells as determined by (a) the ability to prime PC-specific helper cells with anti-T15 antibodies, and (b) the ability to inhibit PC-specific helper function with anti-T15 antibodies, depended on the idiotype of the unprimed donor T cell source and not that of the B cells in the reconstituted recipients. We conclude that the idiotype-bearing T cell receptor specific for PC is not a passively adsorbed B cell product.
D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D000939:Epitopes; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D010767:Phosphorylcholine / Q000494:pharmacology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
D000939:Epitopes; D010767:Phosphorylcholine