NEGATIVE SELECTION EXPERIMENTS SUPPORT THE IDEA THAT T-T HELP IS REQUIRED FOR THE H-Y-SPECIFIC CYTO-TOXIC T-CELL RESPONSE

Antigen-primed female [mouse] thoracic duct lymphocyte (TDL) populations (B6, H-2KbI-AbDb) were depleted of T cells specific for the male H-Y antigen presented in the context of I-Ab by negative selection through irradiated male H-2KbI-AbDd recipients. This procedure substantially removed the capacity of such TDL to respond to H-Y-H-2Db. The response can be reconstituted by adding either smaller numbers of unfiltered, H-Y-primed, B6 female TDL or anti-Ly-2-treated memory T cells. The concurrent presence of helper T cells specific for H-Y-H-2-I-Ab is required for the generation of secondary cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses for H-Y-H-2Db. This is discussed in the context of similar, though not identical, experiments with the vaccinia virus model.