Suppression of a "recurrent" idiotype results in profound alterations of the whole B-cell compartment.

The progeny of BALB/c female mice actively immunized with the trinitrophenyl-binding myeloma protein MOPC460 and producing anti-idiotypic antibodies during pregnancy were compared with mice born of normal mothers for several characteristics of B lymphocytes and their precursors. In all cases, maternal anti-idiotypic immunity resulted in the suppression of the expression of that idiotype by immunocompetent cells in the progeny, as shown by limiting-dilution analysis in single clones of mitogen-reactive IgM-secreting cells. At critical concentrations of circulating maternal antibodies, suppression of the antibody idiotype was found to be accompanied by a large increase in the total number of mature small B lymphocytes. This increase can be accounted for by the selective expansion of B cells bearing nonimmunoglobulin surface structures crossreactive with a MOPC460 idiotope recognized by a monoclonal antibody. In addition, the large majority of newly formed mature B lymphocytes, as well as a large fraction of immunoglobulin-negative cells in the bone marrow of suppressed mice, bear such nonimmunoglobulin MOPC460 crossreactive determinant(s). These results suggest that the suppression of a given "recurrent" idiotype has profound consequences for a large part of the immune system.