Suppression and enhancement of the T cell-dependent production of antibody to SRBC in vitro by bacterial lipopolysaccharide.

LPS induced the production of antibody to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) in cultures of spleen cells from normal and T cell-depleted mice, and addition of SRBC to the cultures enchanced this T cell-independent response very little. By contrast, the T cell-dependent production of antibody to SRBC in vitro was suppressed when lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was added at the time when the spleen cells were cultured. Later addition of LPS to spleen cell cultures caused enhancement of antibody production, but only when LPS had not been added before. Addition of T cells that had been primed with SRBC in vivo did not reverse the LPS-induced suppression of antibody production. The data are interpreted to mean that either B cells are rendered incapable of receiving T cell signals in the presence of LPS or that LPS interferes with the appropriate association of cellular components which cooperate in the immune response to SRBC.