Lymphocyte specificity to protein antigens. I. Characterization of the antigen-induced in vitro T cell-dependent proliferative response with lymph node cells from primed mice.

An in vitro assay which measures antigen-induced proliferation of primed murine lymph node cells is described. The response is mediated by T eclls since it can be obtained by using nylon wool-passed lymphocytes (less than 1% Ig+ cells) and it can be abolished by treatment with anti-Thy 1.2 and C. Furthermore, LN cells from nu/nu mice injected with antigen do not demonstrate antigen-induced proliferation in contrast to the response observed in euthymic littermate controls. Other relevant parameters of this proliferative assay include the observations that the response is highly antigen specific, can be seen as early as 4 days and as late as 60 days after in vivo priming, is restricted to the use of certain sets of LN when animals are injected subcutaneously at the base of the tail, and can be seen with LN cells from mice primed with antigen in either CFA or ICFA. The ease of the assay coupled with its specificity and quantitative dimensions provides a direct and simple method to evaluate processes involved in antigen-induced murine T lymphocyte activation.