Thymic influence on the T-lymphocyte self MHC repertoire. I. Helper T-lymphocyte precursors.

We measured the frequencies of helper T-cell precursors in spleens of allogeneic thymus-grafted nude mice to determine whether allogeneic thymus engraftment resulted in clonal deletion of helper T-cells reactive to thymic major histocompatibility complex alloantigens, thereby producing tolerance to the thymic alloantigens. C3H thymus-grafted nudes had nearly normal numbers of C3H-reactive helper T-cell precursors, whereas C57BL/6 thymus-grafted nudes had significantly reduced numbers of C57BL/6-reactive helper T-cell precursors. Additional evidence suggested that tolerance was not due to a paucity of helper T-cell precursors: a) there was no correlation between the helper T-cell precursor frequency and the ability to mount cytotoxic responses against the thymic alloantigens, and b) exogenous helper factors did not break cytotoxic T-lymphocyte tolerance to thymic alloantigens. Thus, we conclude that immune tolerance resulting from engraftment of allogeneic thymic tissue is not necessarily due to clonal deletion of specific helper T-cell precursors.