Influence of the Ity/Lsh/Bcg gene on the development of suppressor cell precursors in the early phase of the infection of mice with Mycobacterium lepraemurium.

In vitro inducible suppressor cell precursors were detected in the spleen of BALB/c but not in DBA/2 mice infected intraperitoneally with 10(8) Mycobacterium lepraemurium bacilli, thus suggesting that their development is genetically controlled. Two pairs of mouse strains congenic at the Ity/Lsh/Bcg locus (BALB/c-C.D2 and B10.A-B10.A.Bcgr) were used to investigate whether this phenomenon is influenced by this gene known to control the relative susceptibility of mice to Myco. lepraemurium infection. This seems likely, as the detection of culture-induced suppressor activity was delayed for 5-6 weeks in C.D2 and B10.A.Bcgr mice infected intravenously with 10(4) Myco. lepraemurium bacilli. However, despite the retardation in the detection of suppressor cell precursors, the level of in vitro induced suppressor activity at onset in spleen cell suspensions of mice carrying the resistant allele was higher than in cell cultures derived from susceptible mice. As the resistant allele has a different effect when found on BALB/c or DBA/2 background, other genetic factors are apparently involved in the development of suppressor cell precursors. We finally observed that, in spleen cell cultures from intravenously infected Ity/Lsh/Bcg congenic mice on the BALB/c background, adherent and non-adherent cells were required in the inductive phase of suppressor cell development, whereas in vitro induced suppressor activity was found exclusively in the adherent cell fraction. Given these properties, we thus conclude that suppressor cell precursors detected in the spleen of these intravenously infected mice are similar to those previously observed in C3H mice infected intraperitoneally with a thousand times more bacilli.