In vitro cell-mediated cytotoxicity to the male specific (H-Y) antigen in man.

We have studied the role of HLA antigens in restricting specificity of the cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTL). CTL's developed between female responder/male stimulator combinations, were tested for H-Y antigen killing in cell-mediated lympholysis. Two CTL's demonstrated HLA-restricted H-Y cytotoxicity. In both instances, the responders are married parous females and both are positive for HLA-A2. These CTL's lysed target cells from donors who are either positive for the sensitizing HLA antigen or who are HLA-A2-positive males. On the other hand, one CTL where the HLA-A2-positive responder is not a parous female did not show HLA-restricted H-Y cytotoxicity. Also, CTL's where responders do not carry HLA-A2 showed no H-Y cytotoxicity. The data suggest that pregnancy(ies) is sufficient in itself to induce HLA-restricted H-Y cytotoxicity and that it can be recalled by in vitro stimulation with lymphocytes from an unrelated male donor. Also, in these studies HLA-restricted H-Y cytotoxicity was obtained only with targets that shared HLA-A2 with the effectors.