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An appreciable percent (3-14%) of the lymphocyte-like cells of the mouse spleen lack both the theta-isoantigen and sufficient surface immunoglobulin to be detected by conventional immunofluorescence or autoradiographic procedures. These theta(-),Ig(-) cells are increased in frequency after treatment of mice with antithymocyte serum or in mice that have been thymectomized, irradiated (850 R), and reconstituted with bone marrow cells. Moreover, in chimeric C57BL/6 mice in which the T cells are derived from (BALB/c x C57BL/6)F(1) donors, theta(-),Ig(-) cells also lack BALB/c histocompatibility antigens. These experiments indicate that theta(-),Ig(-) cells are not theta(-) T lymphocytes. Removal of complement receptor lymphocytes from spleen cell populations increases the frequency of theta(-),Ig(-) cells, indicating that such cells lack the complement receptor. Partially purified populations of theta(-),Ig(-) cells have been obtained by cytolysis by anti-theta- and anti-kappa-antibody and complement and by density gradient ultracentrifugation. These cells closely resemble lymphocytes in morphology. The only exceptional feature is the existence of prominent nucleoli. The theta(-),Ig(-) cells lack hemoglobin and endogenous peroxidases, are not actively phagocytic, and do not adhere to glass. This suggests they are not of the erythroid, myeloid, or monocytoid lines. [(3)H]Thymidine labeling studies indicate that theta(-),Ig(-) cells are members of a relatively slowly dividing cell pool. Whether theta(-),Ig(-) cells are members of the "classical" B lymphocyte line or belong to another, as yet undescribed, lineage is not yet certain.

The interaction of antigen with specific, cell-associated receptors was measured in thermodynamic terms. The binding of (125)I-labeled 2,4-dinitrophenyl guinea pig albumin (DNP(16)GPA-(125)I) to lymphocytes from guinea pigs immunized to DNP(16)GPA is a temperature-dependent, reversible process. Measurement of association and dissociation rates of antigen-receptor complexes permits calculation of antigen-cell binding constants. These may also be calculated by equilibrium-binding techniques. Although differences in the constants calculated in these two ways exist, a clear increase in avidity of cell receptor for antigen occurs in the course of the immune response. This change in receptor avidity provides evidence that the time-dependent change in affinity of serum antibody (maturation) indeed has a cellular basis. The magnitude of the equilibrium constant is, in part, due to binding of more than one DNP group per molecule of antigen. Thus, multivalent ligands bind more effectively to cell receptors than univalent or paucivalent ligands when measured by the number of antigen molecules bound, the dissociation rate of antigen-receptor complexes, and in the relative capacity to inhibit a standard multivalent ligand (DNP(16)GPA-(125)I) from binding.

Transfer of lymphoid cells from strain-2 guinea pigs immunized to bovine gamma globulin into syngeneic recipients immunized with dinitrophenyl ovalbumin markedly enhances the secondary antidinitrophenyl response of the recipient to challenge with dinitrophenyl-bovine gamma globulin. This function of the carrier bovine gamma globulin-specific cells is resistant to irradiation with up to 5000 rads, although the capacity of the irradiated cell population to transfer immunologic memory for bovine gamma globulins or to be stimulated by antigen to synthesize DNA in vitro is abolished by this treatment.

Equilibrium measurements of interactions of anti-DNP antibodies, prepared using DNP-PLL and several DNP-proteins for immunization, with DNP(0.6)-PLL(240) and with the univalent hapten, epsilon-DNP-L-lysine, were made utilizing the technique of fluorescence quenching. Carrier specificity of anti-DNP-PLL antibodies was demonstrated by a higher average intrinsic association constant (K(0)) of anti-DNP-PLL antibodies with DNP(0.6)-PLL(240) than with epsilon-DNP-L-lysine. The free energy contribution of the PLL carrier to the interaction of intact anti-DNP-PLL antibodies with DNP(0.6)-PLL(240) was from -0.8 to -2.1 kcal/mole. On the other hand, intact anti-DNP-protein antibodies displayed a lower energy of interaction with DNP(0.6)-PLL(240) than with epsilon-DNP-L-lysine of up to +2.4 kcal/mole. Fab' fragments of both anti-DNP-PLL and anti-DNP-BGG antibodies have K(0)'s with epsilon-DNP-L-lysine identical to the K(0)'s of the intact anti-DNP antibodies from which they were prepared. However, K(0) of interaction of Fab' fragments with DNP(0.6)-PLL(240) (a large proportion of the conjugated PLL molecules in this preparation bear more than one DNP group) is considerably lower than that of the intact antibody. Thus a cooperative effect in the binding of bivalent antibody and bivalent (or greater) antigen exists and is of the order of -1.2 to -2.0 kcal/mole of IgG antibody. Although the direct contribution of the carrier to the interaction of Fab' fragment of anti-DNP-PLL and DNP(0.6)-PLL(240) is -0.4 kcal/mole, the energy of carrier specificity, based upon consideration of cooperative effects and of repulsion of anti-DNP-protein antibodies for portions of the DNP-PLL determinants, is of the order of -3 kcal/mole (approximately 30% of total binding energy).

Guinea pigs immunized with 2,4-dinitrophenyl-guinea pig albumin (DNP-GPA) possess lymphocytes which specifically bind sufficient DNP-GPA-(125)I to their surface to be detected by radioautography. These lymphocytes are present in the draining lymph nodes in a frequency of approximately 50/1000 lymphocytes in animals immunized 2-4 wk earlier with DNP-GPA in complete Freund's adjuvant. Nonimmunized animals have approximately 0.4 DNP-GPA antigen-binding cells (ABC) per 1000 lymphocytes. An increase in the frequency of DNP-GPA ABC in peripheral blood is detectable by 5 days after immunization, which is before the time that serum anti-DNP antibody is measurable. The receptors of these ABC are hapten specific in that free epsilon-DNP-L-lysine, at low concentration, inhibits the binding of DNP-GPA-(125)I; DNP bovine serum alumbin (DNP-BSA) is equivalent to DNP-GPA in the inhibition of binding of DNP-GPA-(125)I to ABC; and both DNP-GPA agarose beads and DNP-BSA agarose beads specifically adsorb DNP-GPA-(125)I ABC. Anti-immunoglobulin antisera, particularly anti-gamma(2) sera, inhibit the binding of DNP-GPA-(125)I to these cells implying that the receptors are immunoglobulin, primarily of the gamma(2) heavy chain class. DNP-GPA-(125)I ABC appear to represent precursors of antibody-secreting cells and have specificity characteristics which are very different from cells, of similarly immunized guinea pigs, which mediate a cellular immune response to DNP-GPA.

Transfer of live lymphoid cells from BGG-immunized strain 2 guinea pigs into syngeneic animals primed with DNP-OVA prepares the recipients for a markedly enhanced secondary anti-DNP antibody response upon challenge with DNP-BGG. This phenomenon has been demonstrated when the recipients were challenged 1 day after cell transfer, but it was considerably more striking when an interval of 6 days was allowed between transfer of cells and challenge with antigen. As demonstrated in the preceding paper (6), BGG preimmunization enhanced anti-DNP antibody responses to challenge with DNP-BGG. An analysis of the characteristics of substances to which preimmunization was effective in enhancing subsequent anti-hapten responses was made. It was shown that preimmunization of strain 13 guinea pigs with a copolymer of glutamic acid and lysine (GL), to which these animals are genetically unable to accord an immune response, failed to prepare them for an enhanced anti-DNP response to DNP-GL. Tolerance to BGG specifically abrogated the capacity of subsequent BGG immunization to prepare DNP-OVA primed rabbits for an enhanced anti-DNP response to DNP-BGG. Sensitization of animals to haptens by preimmunization with hapten-protein conjugates failed to prepare them for enhanced primary or secondary antibody responses to other determinants associated with that hapten on a different carrier. These studies indicate that the enhancing effect of carrier preimmunization reflects a cooperative interaction between lymphoid cells specific for carrier and cells specialized for haptenic determinants. Furthermore, the capacity of a substance to behave as a carrier requires more than its possession of a variety of antigenic determinants.

The capacity of lymphoid cells from nonsensitized mice to lyse antibody-coated target erythrocytes in vitro does not require the presence of thymus-derived or thymus-dependent lymphocytes. Thus, spleen cells from thymus-deprived mice and spleen cell populations from which thymus-dependent lymphocytes had been removed were fully competent to mediate destruction of antibody-coated target cells. However, prior treatment of spleen cell populations with antibody to kappa chains diminished this function, suggesting a role for bone marrow-derived lymphocytes.

A number of autosomal dominant immune response (IR) genes have been identified in both mice and guinea pigs. These IR genes have been shown to be linked to the major histocompatibility antigens of the species and to be functionally expressed primarily in T lymphocytes. In order to more fully understand the relationship between IR genes, histocompatibility antigens, and immune recognition, the effect of specific alloantisera on lymphocyte stimulation induced by antigens under control of IR genes was examined. Using lymphocytes from strain 2 or strain 13 animals, the in vitro proliferative responses both to antigens which are known to be under genetic control (DNP-GL in strain 2 guinea pigs and GT in strain 13 guinea pigs) and to an antigen which is not known to be under genetic control (PPD) were inhibited to a similar degree and to a much greater extent than the response to phytohemagglutinin. However, when cells from F(1) (2 x 13) animals are used, the alloantisera markedly inhibit only the response which is linked to the histocompatibility antigens against which the serum is directed. Thus, the anti-2 serum inhibited the response to DNP-GL but not to GT; the anti-13 serum inhibited the response to GT but did not affect DNP-GL response. The inhibitory activity of the alloantisera could not be removed by absorption with gamma globulin of the opposite strain. It can be concluded from these observations that immune response genes produce a cell surface-associated product and that this product plays a role in the mechanism of antigen recognition by the T lymphocyte. The mechanisms by which alloantisera block this process of antigenic recognition is not resolved nor is the relationship between the IR gene product and the antigen-binding receptor of the T lymphocyte. The approach described here offers a powerful tool for the resolution of these problems.

Rabbits immunized with killed type III pneumococci respond to anamnestic challenge by type specific polysaccharide (S III) with the synthesis of anti-S III antibody if a long interval is allowed to elapse between primary and secondary immunization. A study of the anti-S III antibody produced early and late in the immune response revealed no change in molecular class, banding pattern of dissociated light chains, or S III binding characteristics as measured under equilibrium conditions or by study of dissociation kinetics utilizing radioiodinated p-OH-benzyl-S III. Sequential booster injections of S III into rabbits primarily immunized with whole organisms 8 or 9 months earlier led to a progressive decrease in the number of animals showing successful anamnestic responses and in the magnitude of those responses. It is concluded that S III depletes the antigen sensitive cell population in the secondary response largely because of its limited ability to stimulate sustained proliferation by such cells.

The studies reported here demonstrate that immunocompetent lymphoid cells from allogeneic donor guinea pigs stimulate the synthesis of anti-DNP and anti-OVA antibodies by recipients previously primed with DNP-OVA. This allogeneic effect occurs spontaneously in the absence of any further anti-genic challenge. Furthermore, the transfer of allogeneic cells prepares DNP-OVA-primed recipients for a striking secondary anti-DNP response to DNP-BGG; this occurs in equal degree whether or not the cells are derived from BGG-primed donors. We suggest that the allogeneic cells function by virtue of a specific immunologic attack of grafted cells on host cells. This conclusion is made on the basis of the following evidence: (a) The failure of observing the phenomenon with L(2)C leukemia cells and irradiated strain 2 lymph node and spleen cells which, although capable of initiating a host-versus-graft response, are incapable of mediating graft-versus-host reactions; and (b) the inability of (strain 2 x strain 13) F(1) hybrids to mediate the allogeneic effect in strain 13 recipients. The analysis of this phenomenon may offer a key to the delineation of mechanisms involved in the activation of precursors of antibody-forming cells.

The induction of tolerance in guinea pigs with a 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNP) derivative of a copolymer of copolymer of D-glutamic acid and D-lysine (D-GL) leads to a preferential depression of the capacity to produce high affinity anti-DNP antibody in response to immunization with DNP-guinea pig albumin. Thus, immunization 2 wk after tolerance induction with 3 mg of DNP-D-GL results in an immune response in which individual plaque-forming cells (PFC) secreting high affinity anti-DNP antibody are absent and in which the affinity of circulating anti-DNP antibody is reduced. A similar, but less marked, suppression is seen when 0.3 mg of DNP-D-GL is used for tolerance induction. If immunization is delayed until 2 months after tolerance induction, then suppression is restricted to the highest avidity PFC group. Our data is consistent with a state of tolerance in the pool of precursors of anti-DNP antibody-secreting cells induced as a result of their interaction with DNP-D-GL in the absence of specific "helper" cells, which appear to be lacking for DNP-D-GL. In such a situation, the affinity of receptors on precursor cells for tolerogen and the concentration of tolerogen appear to be crucial determinants of whether an individual cell will become tolerant.

Two H-2-linked autosomal dominant immune response (Ir) genes Ir-IgG and Ir-IgA were demonstrated to be at separate loci. Ir-IgG controls the immune response to IgG (gamma2a) myeloma proteins and Ir-IgA the immune response to IgA meyloma proteins. Both genes are associated with the H-2K region specificities of the H-2 chromosome, specifically Ir-IgG with H-2(b) and Ir-IgA with H-2(a). Different recombinants derived from H-2(a)/H-2(b) crossovers were examined for their immune responsiveness to BALB/c IgG (gamma2a) and IgA myeloma proteins. B10 (H-2(b)) parental type responded only to IgG; B10.A (H-2(a)) responded only to IgA. All the recombinants except for B10.A (4R) responded to either IgG or IgA. B10.A (4R), however, responded to both IgG and IgA. This indicated that the crossover event giving rise to B10.A (4R) occurred between the Ir-IgG and Ir-IgA loci.

Mixed lymphocyte reactions occur when mouse spleen cell populations depleted of thymus-derived (T) lymphocytes are cultured with allogeneic target cells inactivated by mitomycin C or X irradiation, and when F(1) hybrid responder cells are cultured with inactivated parental target cells. These responses might be interpreted as indicating that T lymphocytes are not required for responsiveness and that F(1) lymphocytes recognize parental alloantigens. Data reported here indicate that the more likely explanation for these surprising results is that inactivated target cells recognize the "responding" cells and this recognition leads to the response observed.

30 to 40% of Hartley strain guinea pigs have previously been demonstrated to possess a dominant autosomal gene which enables them to recognize the antigenicity of hapten-poly-L-lysine conjugates as expressed by the development of both antihapten antibodies and delayed hypersensitivity to the immunizing antigen. In the present study, it was shown that PLL alone was weakly antigenic in such genetic responder animals. Immunization with DNP-PLL electrostatically combined with foreign albumins elicits the production of anti-DNP antibodies in all Hartley strain guinea pigs, although the percentage of animals demonstrating a delayed response to DNP-PLL and therefore considered genetic responders remains 30 to 40%. Immunization with nonantigenic polyanions combined with DNP-PLL does not produce such an effect. Some degree of PLL specificity of purified anti-DNP antibodies produced by genetic nonresponder animals by immunization with DNP-PLL combined with foreign albumins was demonstrated by means of fluorescence quenching.

In vitro antigen stimulation of DNA synthesis in lymph node cultures from immunized guinea pigs can be obtained with very low (10(-4) microg/ml) antigen concentrations in the culture fluid. Immunization with low doses of DNP-GPA leads to a cell population capable of being stimulated, on the average, by low concentration of antigen whereas immunization with large antigen doses results in a sensitive cell population requiring, on the average, high antigen concentrations for stimulation. These findings correlate well with the affinity for hapten of the serum antibodies produced by these guinea pigs. Both delayed reactions in vivo and DNA synthesis in vitro can be stimulated by hapten conjugated to proteins different from that used in primary immunization. However the immunizing conjugate is much more effective in terms of antigen concentration required for a given response. These results can be understood in terms of a thermodynamically driven interaction of antigen (or "processed" antigen) with cell-associated antibody.

Genetic nonresponder guinea pigs made tolerant to BSA and then immunized with DNP-PLL.BSA failed to make anti-DNP-PLL antibodies. Thus, tolerance to a carrier protein renders animals unresponsive to the hapten which it bears. The addition in vitro of DNP-PLL or DNP-GL to lymph node cell cultures derived from genetic responder animals immunized with these materials led to a significant stimulation of (3)H-thymidine incorporation into DNA. However, the addition of DNP-PLL or DNP-GL to lymph node cell cultures from nonresponder animals immunized with these materials failed to produce any stimulation of DNA synthesis. Furthermore, the addition of DNP-PLL to lymph node cell cultures from nonresponder animals immunized with DNP-PLL.BSA or DNP-PLL.OVA also failed to stimulate cell proliferation in spite of the fact that the lymph node cells of these animals were producing anti-DNP-PLL antibodies. The above facts suggest that the function of the PLL gene product is to act at an early crucial step in the immune mechanism to form an antigen-inducer complex. The specificity of this early step may be of a simple order and different than that of the antibody which is later produced in the immune response.