Delayed hypersensitivity induced by anti-T-cell-line antisera is enhanced by pertussigen and not restricted by histocompatibility genes.

Anti-T-cell-line antisera were raised by repeatedly injecting mice with syngeneic, antigen-specific, delayed hypersensitivity (DH) inducing cells grown as continuous T-cell lines in vitro. Many of these antisera could induce antigen-specific DH responses which, in some cases, were rather slight. For example, the DH reaction to azobenzenearsonate induced in A/J mice by an A/J antiserum produced against the syngeneic azobenzenearsonate-specific cell line AA3 was only a weak response. Administration of pertussigen, a protein purified from Bordetella pertussis, markedly enhanced this response and prolonged its duration. Histologically the reaction showed the classical mononuclear infiltration of DH. It could be transferred to naive mice by lymph node cells that were anti-Thy-1.2 sensitive, and the transfer was restricted by genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The induction of DH by antiserum, however, was not influenced by MHC or non-MHC gene products.