Sampson D, Kauffman H M, Grotelueschen C, Metzig J
Surgery. 1976 Apr;79(4):393-7.
Both the spleen and thymus of man contain a population of cells which can suppress the mixed lymphocyte reaction. Splenic cells suppress the MLC 58 +/- 4.8 percent, and the thymus is able to suppress the MLC 90 +/- 2.6 percent. However, splenic cells require stimulation by vegetable mitogens before suppressor activity can be observed, and the thymus displays spontaneous suppressor activity without prior stimulation. The suppressor effect is linearly related to the log of the cell dose (r = 0.8, p less than 0.01), and at low doses the suppressor cells stimulate rather than inhibit the MLC. The cells are exquisitely sensitive to immunosuppressive drugs, and blood levels encountered in clinical organ transplantation abrogate their suppressive activity. The suppressive activity of the cells is nonspecific, and they are able to inhibit the MLC between individuals totally unrelated to the spleen or thymus donor. Since these cells likely play a role in the development of tolerance, further characterization of their properties is required.
人类的脾脏和胸腺均含有一群能够抑制混合淋巴细胞反应的细胞。脾细胞可抑制混合淋巴细胞反应达58±4.8%，而胸腺能够抑制混合淋巴细胞反应达90±2.6%。然而，脾细胞在观察到抑制活性之前需要植物有丝分裂原的刺激，而胸腺则表现出无需预先刺激的自发抑制活性。抑制效应与细胞剂量的对数呈线性关系（r = 0.8，p小于0.01），并且在低剂量时抑制细胞会刺激而非抑制混合淋巴细胞反应。这些细胞对免疫抑制药物极为敏感，临床器官移植中所遇到的血药浓度会消除它们的抑制活性。这些细胞的抑制活性是非特异性的，并且它们能够抑制与脾脏或胸腺供体完全无关的个体之间的混合淋巴细胞反应。由于这些细胞可能在耐受性的形成中发挥作用，因此需要对其特性进行进一步的表征。
