Failure of a tumour to prime CTL specific for some of the minor H antigens it expresses but not others.

The H-Y-expressing murine tumour, ET-5, specifically immunizes B6 female mice that have rejected it against H-Y-positive male skin grafts, yet fails to prime their spleen cells for the generation of H-Y-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). ET-5 also fails to prime relevant congenic hosts to generate CTL specific for H-3 or H-25 minor H antigens, or major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I antigens, all of which are expressed in immunogenic form by ET-5. Nonetheless, C3H.SW mice, which are MHC-compatible with B6 mice in which ET-5 originated, but differ from B6 at many minor H loci, can be primed to generate CTL directed against one or more unidentified minor H antigens. These CTL are conventional MHC-restricted, CD8+ T cells, and require priming in vivo for their generation. Significantly, C3H.SW females can be primed by ET-5 to generate B6-specific CTL, but not H-Y-specific CTL. Thus CTL priming is selective in the sense that ET-5 primes CTL specific for some of the antigens it expresses but not others. The basis for this selectivity is not known but, in the case of H-Y antigen, it appears not to result from an inability of ET-5 to express either H-2Db-encoded antigens, the restriction element for H-Y-specific CTL in B6 females, or H-Y itself in vivo.