Clones of alloreactive T cells

Abstract

ONE of the basic tenets of the clonal selection theory is that antigen-specific precursor cells bear recognition structures directed towards a single antigenic specificity. The concept of clonal selection at the level of B-cell responses is widely accepted, but the proof of clonally distributed antigen receptors on T cells is lacking. Indirect evidence for clonally distributed T cell receptors has been produced in various ways (see ref. 1 for review), but functional clones of T cells have not been conclusively demonstrated. Using modifications of techniques previously described for isolation of clones of transformed cells² and for the production of colonies of T cells in soft agar³, we have succeeded in deriving clones of alloreactive murine T cells.