H-2 compatability requirement for T-cell-mediated lysis of target cells infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Different cytotoxic T-cell specificities are associated with structures coded for in H-2K or H-2D;

Use of syngeneic, allogeneic, F1, AND H-2 recombinatn mice has shown that animals injected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) virus generate T cells which are cytotoxic for H-2K or H-2D compatible, but not H-2 different, virus-infected target cells. Three separate lines of evidence are presented which indicate that these immune T cells are sensitized to "altered-self," the self antigens involved being coded for in the H-2K or H-2d regions. Firstly, cytotoxic activity associated with mutuality at H-2D iy, lysis mediated by immune T cells from F1 or H-2 recombinant mice is specifically inhibited only by presence of unlabeled, virus-infected cells that are H-2 compatible with the targets. Thirdly, LCM-immune F1 and H-2 recombinant T cells inoculated into irradiated, virus-infected recipients proliferate only to kill target cells that are H-2 compatible with both the donor and the recipient. All of these experiments establish that there is a dissociation of T-cell activities between parental haplotypes in F1 mice, and between H-2K and H-2D in recombinants. It would thus seem that there are at least two specificities of tlcm-immune T cells in homozygotes, associated with either H-2K or H-2D, and four specificities in F1 hybrids. The significance of these findings, with respect both to gene duplication and to the marked polymorphism in the H-2 system, is discussed.