Fine specificity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes: C57BL effector cells induced by autologous cells modified with hapten (4-hydroxy-3-nitro-phenyl)acetyl (NIP) are not heteroclitic.

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) were generated to syngeneic cells derivatized with serologically cross-reactive compounds (4-hydroxy-3-nitro-phenyl)acetyl (NP) and (4-hydroxy-5-iodo-3-nitro-phenyl)acetyl (NIP) in order to investigate the possible role of a heteroclytic T and B cell receptor marker (U. Krawinkel et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 1977. 7:566) in CTL-target cell interaction. The cytotoxic cells of both BALB/c and C57BL/10 (B 10) origin react specifically with target cells of the inducer type; no heteroclicity of the overall cytotoxic response can be observed by CTL of B 10 origin. The results suggest that in this system, the specificity of CTL is determined by a receptor with a variable region different from that of the isolated NP-specific antigen-binding T cell receptor material.