In vitro correlate for a clonal deletion mechanism of immune response gene-controlled nonresponsiveness.

We used T cell-antigen-presenting cell (APC) combinations from two pairs of recombinant mouse strains, B10.A(4R)-B10.A(2R) and B10.S(7R)-B10.S(9R) (abbreviated 4R, 2R, 7R, 9R, respectively), which differ from each other only in the nonexpression vs. expression of cell-surface E molecules, to study the mechanism of the Ir gene-controlled (E-restricted) response to the terpolymer poly(glu51lys34tyr15) (GLT). No response to GLT occurred when the APC were from E-nonexpressor strains 4R and 7R. When APC from E-expressor strains were used and alloreactivity against the incompatible E molecules was removed by BUdR + light treatment, 7R T cells responded to GLT presented by 9R APC, but 4R T cells failed to respond to GLT presented by 2R APC. However, 4R T cells mounted a proliferative response to GLT presented by fully allogeneic 5R or 9R APC. The latter response was completely abolished by the depletion of cells alloreactive against 2R and 5R or 2R and 9R. Since removal of alloreactivity against 5R plus 9R did not affect the response of 4R T cells to GLT presented by either 5R or 9R cells, we conclude that the 4R T cells generated in response to GLT cross-react with the additional incompatibility presented by 2R cells, that is, the Ek beta chain. In contrast, 7R T cells recognizing GLT presented by 9R APC do not cross-react with Ek beta. These results demonstrate that "blind spots" in the T cell repertoire produced by depletion of cells alloreactive against a single chain of a class II MHC molecule can render a strain nonresponsive to a synthetic polypeptide antigen, and that this nonresponsiveness corresponds to that attributed to the MHC-linked Ir genes.