Synergistic effects of antigen and soluble T-cell factors in B-lymphocyte activation.

Supernatants from phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate-activated cultures of the mouse EL4 thymoma, or of several mouse T-cell hybridomas stimulated either by their specific antigen or by concanavalin A, induced primary splenic B cells to proliferate and differentiate to antibody-secreting cells. This effect was not due to interleukin 2 and did not require the presence of macrophages. The antibody response was polyclonal, including antibodies specific for 2,4-dinitrophenyl and pigeon cytochrome c, present in amounts of 1% or less of the total immunoglobulin produced. The addition of either of these antigens increased the amount of the corresponding specific antibody. At very high concentrations of dinitrophenyl-hemocyanin the specific response could be depressed. These observations were taken to demonstrate that soluble T-cell factors are sufficient to activate a portion of naive B cells to antibody secretion and that under these conditions in vitro the presence of antigen merely enhances the specific response.