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The Effects of Neuraminidase and Galactose Oxidase on Murine Lymphocytes

II. Induction of T Suppressor Cells¹

From the Basic Immunology Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington

Abstract

Normal murine spleen cell populations treated sequentially with neuraminidase (NA) followed by galactose oxidase (GO) failed to mount cytotoxic responses to alloantigen. Such unresponsiveness was shown to be due to the induction of a suppressor T cell after NAGO treatment. Suppressor cell induction did not require cell proliferation, although mitogenic concentrations of galactose oxidase (0.019 units/ml after 50 units/ml NA) were needed. The NAGO-induced suppressor T cell was shown to be capable of suppressing both primary and secondary cytotoxic responses to alloantigen and to develop more readily in young (< 4-month-old) C57BL/6 spleen cell populations than in spleens from older mice. The suppressive activity of NAGO-treated spleen cells increased when they were cultured (1 to 3 days) before testing.

In contrast to the antigen-unresponsiveness of normal spleen cells after NAGO treatment, spleens from alloantigen-primed mice still responded vigorously to the priming antigen after NAGO treatment, although their primary responses to other alloantigens were suppressed. Antigen priming per se did not markedly affect the induction of suppressor T cells by NAGO; the differences between the ability of normal vs primed spleen cells to mount cytotoxic responses after NAGO treatment seemed largely to reflect the relative insusceptibility of secondary cytotoxic responses to the action of suppressor T cells.

Footnotes

¹ This work was supported by Grant AI 15383 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland.