Synergy between subpopulations of mouse spleen cells in the in vitro generation of cell-mediated cytotoxicity: evidence for the involvement of a non-T cell.

Two subpopulations separated from normal spleen have been shown to synergize as responding cells in the in vitro induction of specific cell-mediated cytotoxicity during the mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC). The synergizing populations are a nylon wool column-adherent and a nylon wool column-nonadherent fraction, enriched for B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes, respectively. When a mixture of these fractions is used as the responding cell population in MLC, greater cytotoxicity is generated than would be expected from the sum of activities generated in the two subpopulations sensitized separately. The synergy appears to occur at the sensitization rather than the effector phase. The synergizing cell which is contained in the nylon-adherent subpopulation is distinct from the cytotoxic effector T lymphocyte, is resistant to lysis by rabbit antimouse brain serum, and is unresponsive to phytohemagglutinin; its synergizing function could not be replaced by either plastic-adherent spleen cells or peritoneal exudate cells. These results suggest a role of a non-T-cell nonmacrophage population in the generation of cytotoxic activity.