Lymphocyte transformation induced by autologous cells.

Human peripheral blood T lymphocytes are stimulated to proliferate when cultured with autologous B-lymphoblastoid cell lines, autologous mitogen-induced lymphoblasts, or autologous non-T blood lymphocytes. This reaction, the autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction, has attributes of an immune response possessing both memory and specificity. The capacity to stimulate autologous T lymphocyte proliferation depends on the lineage of the lymphoid cell and not on its establishment in continuous culture or carriage of the EB viral genome. The determinant on non-T lymphocytes which stimulates the autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction appears to be an Ia determinant. Thus, allogeneic graft rejection and the allogenic mixed lymphocyte reaction are very likely extensions of an immune response expressed within the host.