Effect of Specific Antibody to Target Cells on their Specific and Non-specific Interactions with Lymphocytes

Abstract

ANTIBODY specific for target cells has been shown to inhibit damage to the latter by immune lymphocytes both in vivo¹ and in vitro^2,3. Holm and Perlmann⁴ have demonstrated the ability of non-immune human lymphocytes to cause damage to homologous target cells in vitro and this finding has been confirmed⁵. Perlmann and Holm⁶ described the ability of antibody to induce nonspecific damage to tanned fowl red cells by lymphocytes. Antibodies are found in a number of disorders for which an autoimmune aetiology has been proposed. Because non-specific damage by lymphocytes can be shown to occur in vitro, the effect of serum antibody on such lymphocyte activity may be an important facet of the immunopathological processes of these diseases. We describe here the effect of heterologous anti-target cell antibody on the non-specific cytotoxicity of human lymphocytes in vitro, and compare the effect of isologous antibody on specific and non-specific target damage by lymphocytes from a strain of inbred rats.