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An immunological suppressor cell inactivating cytotoxic T-lymphocyte precursor cells recognizing it

Abstract

The immune system does not normally react against self components. Originally, it was postulated that self-reactive cells were somehow deleted or blocked1. More recent thinking2,3 is that such cells are suppressed by regulatory networks similar to those limiting the immune response against non-self determinants. Both mechanisms may exist4,5. I describe here a type of suppression more closely related to the first postulate. In the in vitro, one-way, mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR), cytotoxic T-lymphocyte precursor cells (CLP) from the responder population give rise to cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CL) capable of lysing target cells from the stimulator population6–8. A sub-population of cells in the spleen of athymic nude mice can, when added to such cultures, inactivate CLP capable of recognizing either the H–2 antigens or TNP modifications of the nude spleen. Regarding the nude spleen cells, activation of self-react ve cells is being prevented.

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Miller, R. An immunological suppressor cell inactivating cytotoxic T-lymphocyte precursor cells recognizing it. Nature 287, 544–546 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/287544a0

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