Genetic control of T helper cell function in the clawed toad Xenopus laevis.
The genetic control of the collaboration between Xenopus T and B cells has been analyzed in vivo using cells from five strains of major histocompatibility complex-defined Xenopus. When carrier (fowl gamma-globulin)-primed T cells and hapten (dinitrophenylated keyhole limpet hemocyanin)-primed B cells differed by minor histocompatibility antigens or by only one haplotype of the major histocompatibility complex, the collaboration was efficient in the sense that large numbers of plaques, low-molecular weight antibodies and high-affinity IgM antibodies could be recorded in the cultures challenged with dinitrophenylated fowl gamma-globulin. However, when T and B cells differed at both alleles of the major histocompatibility complex, lower numbers of plaques were obtained, no low-molecular weight anti-hapten antibodies could be detected, and the IgM antibodies that were sometimes synthesized were of low affinity. This suggests that the major histocompatibility complex, or a gene linked with it, affects the collaboration between Xenopus T and B cells in a way perhaps similar to that described in mammals.
D000818:Animals; D000921:Antibody-Producing Cells / Q000276:immunology; D004136:Dinitrobenzenes / Q000276:immunology; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D005838:Genotype; D006462:Hemolytic Plaque Technique; D007525:Isoelectric Focusing; D008211:Lymphocyte Cooperation; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014982:Xenopus laevis / Q000235:genetics*
D004136:Dinitrobenzenes