H-2 mutation affecting immune response to Thy-1.1 antigen.

Mouse thymus, thymus-derived lymphocytes, and brain share an antigen determined by gene at the Thy-1 locus in chromosome 9 (1). Two alleles have been identified at this locus: Thy-1(a), coding for antigen Thy-1.1 (or theta-AKR) present in AKR and seven other strains; and Thy-1(b), coding for antigen Thy-1.2 (or{teta}-C3H) and present in C3H and all the remaining inbred strains. Injection of AKR thymocytes into inbred mice carrying the Thy-1(b) allele results in an immune response that can be measured either serologically by determining the level of antibodies in the recipients' serum (1) or by counting plaque- forming cells (PFC) detectable in spleens of the recipients by means of an assay, with AKR thymocytes as target cells(2). The magnitude of PFC and serum antibody responses after a single thymocyte injection depends on the genetic make-up of the recipient. Three genes controlling the PFC response to the Thy- 1.1 antigen have been identified: Ir-Thy-1A and Ir-Thy-1B, which are closely linked to the major histocompatibility complex (H-2) of the mouse (3-6), and Ir-5, which is located at a distance of 17 cm to the right of the H-2 complex on chromosome 17 (6). Previous genetic mapping with H-2 recombinant strains has indicated that the two Ir-Thy-1 loci are located to the left of the IC subregion (7). Further experiments strongly suggested that either one or both Ir-Thy-1 loci map to the K rather than the I region of the H-2 complex (8). In this report, the study of an H- 2 mutant, CBA-H-2(ka) (M523) (9), and its parental strain, CBA/LacStoY (CBA) provided further evidence that one of these loci apparently resides in the K region and might even be identical with the H-2K locus in that region.