T lymphocytes in rat germinal centres belong to an ER3+ subpopulation of CD4+ cells.

Two-colour immunofluorescence histochemistry showed directly that greater than 90% of CD4+ germinal centre T cells in rat spleen or lymph node examined 7 days after immunization bear the antigen recognized by the monoclonal antibody (mAb) ER3. By contrast, only 30-40% of all thoracic duct or lymph node CD4+ cells were ER3+, as determined by two-colour flow cytometry. CD8+ cells were ER3+, but nearly all B cells were ER3-. Thus, germinal centre T cells belong to a subpopulation of CD4+ cells. Because only 25-30% of CD4+ cells that lack higher molecular weight forms of CD45 (i.e. mAb MRC OX32 cells, equivalent to MRC OX22 cells) express ER3, the CD4+ subpopulations defined by ER3 are neither identical nor complementary to the subsets defined by restricted expression of CD45 epitopes.