The activity of T and B lymphocytes in immunity and tolerance to the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus in mice.

Treatment with anti-theta serum and the Wigzell column technique for cell separation was employed to study the separate functions of the B and T lymphocytes in the late states of immunity to the LCM virus in mice. The cell preparations examined were mixtures of spleen and lymph node cells from immune mice. The results revealed that the anti-viral effect of such cells after transfer to virus carriers was unimpaired in T cell-enriched and B cell-deprived cell preparations. The anti-viral effect was also retained in cell preparations deprived so much of B cells that no antibody was produced in the virus carrier mice receiving transplants of these cells. The results strongly indicate that the anti-viral effect of late immune cells is not only T cell-dependent but that it is also mediated solely by T cells and, moreover, that antibodies have no or very little influence on the virus elimination. The observation that antibody production could be caused neither by column-passed cells nor by anti-theta serum-treated cells, but was obtained by mixtures of these cells, demonstrates that co-operation between T and B cells is crucial for the LCM antibody response. Accordingly, the convincing demonstration of the absence in the persistent virus carriers of cells which, in respect of antibody production, are able to co-operate either with column-passed or with anti-theta serum-treated immune cells, implies that such animals are extremely deficient as regards immune function of both B and T LCM-primed lymphocytes.