Evidence for the existence of two functionally distinct types of cells which regulate the antibody response to type 3 pneumococcal polysaccharide.

Abstract

Summary The administration of various types of syngeneic lymphoid cells to mice immunized with type III pneumococcal polysaccharide (SSS-III) and treated with anti-lymphocyte serum (ALS) revealed that at least two functionally distinct types of presumably thymic-derived cells (a suppressor cell and an amplifier cell) act in an opposing manner to regulate the antibody response to SSS-III. The ability of ALS to increase the magnitude of the antibody response to SSS-III is apparently the result of the inactivation of a cell type that normally suppresses the antibody response produced following immunization with SSS-III.