Modification of cellular immunity by Taenia multiceps (Cestoda): accessory macrophages and CD4+ lymphocytes are affected by two different coenurus factors.

Taenia multiceps coenurus fluid was analysed by fast protein liquid chromatography in order to separate the factors responsible for previously reported modification of immunological activity in macrophages and T-cells. One factor, F7, was found to be mitogenic for murine L3T4+ T-cells, to be macrophage dependent, to require macrophage compatibility at the I region of the H2 complex, to increase the sensitivity of T-cells to regulatory signals from macrophages and to increase the rate of generation of splenic rosette-forming cells (RFC) against sheep red cells. A second factor, F24, was found to alter macrophages so as to render them suppressive, rather than stimulatory, for parasite-activated and Con A-activated lymphocyte transformation, to depress the rate of generation of RFC and to antagonize the mitogenic effect of F7. The combined actions of these two factors are, therefore, sufficient to explain the known immunomodulatory effects of the metacestode.