B-cell-mediated regulation of delayed-type hypersensitivity.

We obtained immune sera from mice which received suppressor B cells induced in vitro, injected them into immunized mice, and measured suppression of the delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) of these recipient mice. In the recipients, effector-phase suppressor T (Ts) cells were induced, and the action of these Ts cells was antigen-nonspecific. The suppressive material of the sera was adsorbed on a Sepharose column coated with anti-mouse immunoglobulin antibody and acid elution of the column yielded the elute fraction that showed significant suppressive activity. The suppressive activity of the sera was also adsorbed by an antigen-coated Sepharose column, and the eluate from the column had suppressive activity. Moreover, we established antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies, some of which suppressed the DTH in an H-2-nonrestricted way. The isotype or specificity of the antibodies was not related to the suppression, because suppressive and nonsuppressive antibodies belonged to the same immunoglobulin isotype and because the antibodies that recognized the same epitope had different suppressive activities. The Fc portion was not the functional site, because the F(ab')2 fragment had the activity. The suppressive antibody induced effector-phase Ts cells, which had the anti-idiotypic receptor. These findings suggested that antigen-specific antibodies in the immune sera mediated the suppression of DTH by the induction of effector-phase Ts cells in vivo and the idiotype of the antibody stimulated the anti-idiotypic receptor of these Ts cells.