Biologic activity of an idiotype-bearing suppressor T cell factor produced by a long-term T cell hybridoma.

Biologic activities and immunochemical characteristics of an azobenzenearsonate- (ABA)specific suppressor T cell factor produced by a longterm T cell hybridoma, F12, were studied. In vivo administration of F12 culture supernatant resulted in the suppression of ABA-specific delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) responses and the inhibition of priming for ABA-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses. Moreover, F12 induced a second set of suppressor cells that act in the efferent phase of DTH. The active material in the F12 culture supernatant expressed major cross-reactive idiotypic (CRI) determinants of anti-ABA antibodies of A/J mice and I-J subregion-coded specificities but not express determinants of immunoglobulin constant regions. These results demonstrated that F12 is a functioning hybrid cell line of the first-order suppressor T cell subset.