Proliferation of natural suppressor cells in long-term cultures of spleen cells from normal adult mice.

Natural suppressor cells were induced by culturing spleen cells from normal adult mice for 2 to 3 wk. The suppressor cells were large in size, nonadherent and nonspecifically suppressed the plaque-forming cells response of fresh spleen cells to SRBC in vitro. The suppressive activity of the cells was not affected by treatment with indomethacin or anti-Thy-1, anti-Ig, anti-Ia, or anti-asialoGM1 plus complement. Phenotype analysis by FACS showed that Thy-1, L3T4, Ly-2, CD3-epsilon, TCR-alpha beta, Ig, B220, Ia, and asialoGM1 Ag were all absent in the suppressor cells, although they were wheat germ agglutinin receptor positive. The suppressor cells did not demonstrate cytotoxicity against either YAC-1 or P-815 cells. Enriched large cell populations from fresh normal spleens expressed the same phenotypes and also exhibited the suppressive activity. These findings suggest that a minor population of natural suppressor cells exist in the normal adult mouse spleen and they proliferate during the in vitro culture of spleen cells.