The H-2 restriction specificity of cytotoxic T cells derived from intrathymic precursors.

Both cortical and medullary thymocytes could give rise to both allospecific and hapten-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) if the cultures contained the T-helper-cell-replacing hormone, interleukin 2 (IL-2). The H-2 restriction specificity of these CTLs was tested by using three different specificity determinants that are known to be influenced by the H-2 genotype of the thymus (rather than by the H-2 of the precursor cell itself): the cross-killing of trinitrophenyl (TNP) coupled allogeneic targets in anti-TNP self responses; the dominance of H-2k-restricted CTLs over H-2d-restricted CTLs in the response of (H-2k X H-2d)F1 mice to TNP-self; and the capacity of alloreactive CTLs to cross-reactively lyse TNP-coupled syngeneic cells. The experiments show that, with regard to all of these specificity determinants, CTLs derived from these intrathymic populations are similar to CTLs derived from the adult mouse spleen. These data suggest that the H-2 restriction specificity is dictated before or at the same time that the cell acquires the capacity to respond to allogenic or haptenated syngeneic cells.