Properties of antigen-specific suppressive T-cell factor in the regulation of antibody response of the mouse. I. In vivo activity and immunochemical characterization.

An antigen-specific suppressive T-cell factor was extracted from physically disrupted thymocytes and spleen cells of mice that had been immunized with soluble protein antigens. The factor, when inoculated into syngeneic normal mice, could induce a significant suppression of IgG antibody response against a hapten coupled to the carrier protein by which the donor of the suppressor factor was immunized. The suppressor factor was found only effective in suppressing the antibody response of syngeneic or H-2 histocompatible recipients. The suppressive T-cell factor was removed by absorption with immunoadsorbent composed of the relevant antigen, but not with any of those of anti-immunoglobulin antibodies. The factor was successfully removed by alloantibodies with specificity for the K end (H-2K, I-A and I-B) of the H-2 complex of the donor strain, but not by those for the D end (I-C, SsSlp, and H-2D). The activity was removed by absorption with a heterologous antithymocyte serum. The mol wt of the suppression T-cell factor was between 35,000 and 60,000 as determined by Sephadex G-200 gel filtration. The suppressive T-cell factor was found to be a heat-liable protein.