title: Staphylococcal enterotoxin B as a potent suppressant of T cell proliferative responses in rats.
abstract: The staphylococcal toxins are well known as stimulators of powerful T lymphocyte proliferative responses. Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) was found, in both humans and mice, to preferentially stimulate T cells bearing particular V beta gene products as part of their functional T cell receptor alpha/beta. In contrast to this reported stimulatory activity we demonstrate here that SEB is a poor stimulant of T lymphocyte proliferative responses in Lewis rats. Moreover, under appropriate conditions, SEB can serve as a powerful suppressant of Lewis rat T lymphocytes, capable of abolishing their antigen-specific or mitogen-stimulated proliferative responses. Suppression of mitogen-induced proliferative responses of rat T cell clones was effective in the presence of syngeneic or allogeneic accessory cells and similar to its stimulatory characteristics, SEB suppressed high proportions of rat T lymphocyte subsets. These data suggest that in certain circumstances SEB can be considered a "supersuppressogen" as well as a "superantigen". Whether SEB will be "superantigen" or "supersuppressogen" is likely to depend on the TcR elements of the lymphocytes as well as on the MHC molecules presenting SEB.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ben-Nun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000938:Antigen-Presenting Cells / Q000276:immunology; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000187:drug effects*; D008934:Mitogens / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D004768:Enterotoxins; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D008934:Mitogens; C031818:enterotoxin B, staphylococcal