The distinctive specificity of antigen-specific suppressor T cells.

Although suppressor T cells have been cloned in only a few instances, the existence of a functional cadre of T cells that acts to downregulate the immune response is well documented. In this review Eli Sercarz and Urszula Krzych describe studies on suppressor T-cell (TS-cell) specificity that provide some support for the conclusion that the TS cell is a distinctive cell type with an expressed repertoire that is different from that expressed by helper T (TH) cells. They go on to explore the interaction between cells recognizing TS-cell-inducing determinants (SDs) and TH-cell-inducing determinants (HDs), and their relationship to immunogenicity and Ir gene effects.