Microenvironmental immunoregulation: possible role of contrasuppressor cells in maintaining immune responses in gut-associated lymphoid tissues.

Abstract

The addition of Peyer''s patch T cells from most strains of mice to spleen cells in primary Mishell-Dutton cultures either has no effect or augments the spleen cells'' response to sheep erythrocytes. If the Peyer''s patch T cells are treated with an anti-I-J antiserum and complement to remove contrasuppressor-inducer cells, the remaining Ly-2-cells (T cells that express Ly-2 but not Ly-1) are highly suppressive. This latent suppressor cell activity also can be revealed by removing contrasuppressor-acceptor (transducer) cells from the splenic assay population with either an anti-I-J or anti-Ly-2 antiserum. Contrasuppression may be important in allowing microenvironmental immune responses (in this case the gut-associated lymphoid tissue) to take place while systemic immunity is suppressed.