Spontaneous release of T cell receptors for alloantigens. II. Induction of antibodies to T cell receptors.

Spleen cells from normal mice, when cultivated in vitro, released receptors or recognition structures (RS) for alloantigens into the surrounding medium. The spontaneous shedding of receptors was revealed by their ability to induce the formation of anti-recognition structure(anti-RS) antibodies upon injection into appropriate F1 hybrid recipients. Cell suspensions containing T and B lymphocytes and those containing T lymphocytes were capable of inducing anti-RS antibody formation, whereas suspensions devoid of T cells were incapable of doing so. Receptors shed from such cell suspensions during a 24-hour cultivation period gave exactly the same results. Cell-free culture supernatants, however, incited higher anti-RS antibody titers, presumably because of an accumulation of RS. The capacity of released T cell receptors to recognize alloantigens as determined in the PAR assay and their ability to induce anti-RS antibodies went roughly parallel.