STUDIES ON THE ROLE OF SUPPRESSOR T CELL IN RESISTANCE TO EXPERIMENTAL AUTOIMMUNE ENCEPHALITOMYELITIS / 中国免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

In order to test whether suppressor T cells are the responsible cell com-ponent in the induced resistance of Lewis rat against reinduction of Exp-erimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis(EAE)or not,attempts have beenmade to enrich a T cell population,which were functionally antagonistic tothe encephalitogenic activity of the EAE-inducing autoaggressive T cells,Lewis rats were passively induced for acute EaE by intravenous injectionof encephalitogenic,Myelin Basic Protein(MBP)-specific T line cell(S1cell). Nylon-wool-enriched spleen T cells recovered from animals passivelyinduced EAE,were cultured in vitro with irradiated encephalitogenic Tcells(S1)in the absence of antigen.The selective growth of T cell popula-tion with the phenotype of CD8 were found in the cultures.Functional ch-aracteristics of this cell population were studied both in vivo and in vitro.Thus,the S1-stimulated cells(Anti-S1 cells)are able to suppress both theantigen-and Con A-induced T cell proliferation of the antigenspecificT cell series.Studies on the in vivo activities of the Anti-Si cells couldhave shown that,pretreatment or posttreatment of the normal Lewis reci-pients with isolated Anti-Si cells are able to abolish or prevent thedisease-inducing activity of autoaggressive T cells.