Human autologous mixed lymphocyte reactions (a review).

The literature concerning the autologous mixed lymphocyte reactions has been reviewed. This analysis supports the following conclusions: human subjects have self-responsive cells which are capable of proliferating when co-cultured with irradiated autologous non-T or Ia+ T cells. Since monoclonal antibodies recognizing distinct determinants of Ia antigen have different effects on AMLR with non-T cells and on Ia+ type AMLR, there is the possibility that different Ia molecule determinants have different functional role in the process of cell-to-cell interaction. The presence of AMLR abnormalities in disease strongly suggests that reactivity among different cell subsets plays a role in immunological homeostasis.