Recognition of protozoan parasites by murine T lymphocytes. II. Role of the H-2 gene complex in interactions between antigen-presenting macrophages and Leishmania-immune T lymphocytes.

The proliferative response of nylon wool purified, primed lymph node cells to L. tropica parasites in vitro was found to be restored by the addition of either syngeneic or allogeneic adherent spleen cells as a putative source of macrophages. These results suggested a lack of H-2 restriction in Leishmania-specific T cell responses. However, when T cell blasts generated in vitro in response to the parasite were separated on Percoll density gradients and subsequently maintained for 4 days in the presence of TCGF, their response to L. tropica was found to be strictly dependent on the presence of syngeneic spleen cells. Further studies using congenic recombinant mice demonstrated that proliferation of a parasite-specific blasts required the presence of spleen cells compatible with the responding cells in the I-A region of the MHC. This requirement for I-A compatible adherent cells in the spleen cell populations was further confirmed by a lack of proliferative responses in the presence of spleen cells treated with monoclonal anti-la antibodies and complement. Leishmania-immune F1 blasts responding to the parasite in the context of either parental la-bearing accessory cell could be obtained by positive selection from a F1 hybrid responding cell population. Using flow microfluorometry, the T cell phenotype of the L. tropica-specific blasts was determined to be Thy-1+, lyt-1+, and Lyt-2-.