Human pregnancy serum inhibits proliferation of T8-depleted cells and their interleukin-2 synthesis in mixed lymphocyte cultures.
T8-depleted and unfractionated T lymphocytes allogeneically stimulated and cultured in the presence of pregnancy sera exhibit an inhibition of cellular proliferation and interleukin-2 synthesis, respectively. Unfractionated T cells show a decrease in their cytotoxicity in the presence of these sera. The inhibition of cytotoxicity could be due to the deficit of IL-2 observed since if exogenous IL-2 is added to the cultures T4/LEU3a-depleted allogeneically stimulated cells reach the same degree of cytotoxicity whether cultured in normal human serum or pregnancy serum. A possible mechanism to explain the inhibition of mixed lymphocyte cultures by pregnancy serum could therefore be decrease of cellular proliferation of the T8-depleted subpopulation with a decrease in IL-2 synthesis, implying an inhibition of cytotoxic effector cells.
D001769:Blood; D003165:Complement System Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D003470:Culture Media; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*
D003470:Culture Media; D007376:Interleukin-2; D003165:Complement System Proteins