Mixed lymphocyte reactivity of human lymphocytes primed in vitro. I. Secondary response to allogenic lymphocytes.

In order to study the mixed lymphocyte culture reactivity of human lymphocytes primed in vitro, a nucleopore culture chamber technique allowing human lymphocytes to be cultured for a period of at least two weeks has been developed. During the primary culture period in nucleopore chambers, human lymphocytes were sensitized against mitomycin-treated allogenic stimulating cells. It was shown that the stimulated lymphocytes underwent a blastogenic reaction and the results suggest a reversion to the state of small, resting, primed lymphocytes. In vitro primed lymphocytes displayed allogenic memory. This was characteristic of a secondary response, which is shown by the following: 1) acceleration, the peak of thymidine incorporation occurring on day 4,2) specificity, the accelerated response was observed only when the primed lymphocytes were confronted with the cell used for priming. Contact with a third party cell did not produce this kind of activation. 3) Amplitude; the peak DNA synthesis response was greater than that of unprimed lymphocytes cultivated for the same length of time.