Antigen-pulsed macrophage monolayers as specific immunoabsorbents: selective absorption of murine T cells committed to soluble protein antigen.

Antigen-pulsed macrophage (MO) monolayers in petri dishes were successfully employed as immunoabsorbents, for both the depletion and enrichment of T cells which proliferated upon exposure to soluble ovalbumin (OA). This procedure was shown not to deplete T cells reactive to a second antigen, and similarly MO monolayers pulsed with other antigens failed to deplete the T-cell preparation of OA-reactive cells. Employing brief incubation with trypsin/ethylenediamine tetracetic acid (EDTA), up to 2 X 10(6) OA-binding T cells could be recovered from each petri dish.