Mechanism of a reaction in vitro associated with delayed-type hypersensitivity.

The cell type responsible for inhibition by antigen of migration in vitro of peritoneal exudate cells obtained from tuberculin-hypersensitive guinea pigs was studied. Exudate populations were separated into component cell types, the lymphocyte and the macrophage. Peritoneal lymphocytes from sensitive donors were the immunologically active cells in this system, the macrophages, being merely indicator cells which migrate. Sensitized peritoneal lymphocyte populations, upon interaction with specific antigen in vitro, elaborated into the medium a soluble material capable of inhibiting migration of normal exudate cells.