Suppressor cell induction in vitro. VI. Production of suppressor factors to synthetic polypeptides GAT and (T,G)-A--L from cells of responder and nonresponder mice.

The capacity of responder and nonresponder strains of mice to generate suppressor cells and factors to two antigens under MHC linked Ir gene control was investigated. Eight different H-2 types (H-2b,d,f,k,p,q,r,s) as well as seven independently derived strains (B10, BALB/c, CBA/Ca, A/St, DBA/2, P/J, SJL) were tested, and all yielded suppressor factor (SF) to (T,G)-A--L and GAT. This indicated that the genetic control of SF production was different from that of helper cell induction. Unlike previous reports of GAT suppressor extracts that GAT-specific supressor factors acted equally on both responder and nonresponder strains. As reported earlier with in vitro induced protein- (KLH) specific suppressor factors, GAT and (T,G)-A--L specific suppressor factors failed to show any genetic restriction in their function. The implications of these results for the general mechanism of Ir gene control are discussed.