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The T Cell Dependence of B Cell Differentiation Induced by Pokeweed Mitogen¹

From the Departments of Pediatrics and Microbiology and the Cancer Research and Training Center, University of Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama 35294

Abstract

The in vitro plasma cell response of human peripheral blood B lymphocytes to PWM was found to be dependent on the presence of T lymphocytes. B lymphocytes cultured alone with PWM did not respond with proliferation or differentiation into plasma cells. When T lymphocytes were added back to B lymphocytes before culture, the number of plasma cells of the IgM, IgG, and IgA classes formed increased in proportion to the number of T lymphocytes returned. Allogeneic T lymphocytes from either peripheral blood or adult thymus could effectively substitute for autologous T lymphocytes. By comparing responses of B lymphocytes cultured with equal numbers of autologous or allogeneic T cells, it was found that the considerable variation in the magnitude of the plasma cell response from different normal donors was related to a quality of their T cells; T cells from high responders substantially enhanced plasma cell differentiation of B cells from low responders and vice versa. This T cell "helper function" was irradiation-resistant and was a property of thymocytes as well as peripheral T cells.

Footnotes

¹ This work was supported by Grant 1-354 from the National Foundation, March of Dimes, and National Institutes of Health Grants AI 11502 and CA 16673.

² Present address: Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78284.

³ A. R. Lawton is recipient of National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award AI 70780.