The Significance of T-B Collaboration across Haplotype Barriers

Abstract

It is now some 13 years since the first antigen-specific immune response (Ir) genes were described and were subsequently shown to be linked to the genes coding for the major histocompatibility antigens (Kantor et al. 1963; Benacerraf and McDevitt 1972). During the past 4 years it has been shown that various cell-cell interactions in the immune response exhibit genetic restrictions at loci in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). These interactions include T-cell-macrophage interactions in the antigen-specific stimulation of proliferation in T cells from previously immunized guinea pigs (Rosenthal and Shevach 1973; Erb and Feldmann 1975); T-cell-B-cell interactions in the secondary response of hapten-primed B cells to hapten-carrier conjugates in the presence of carrier-primed T cells (reviewed by Benacerraf and Katz 1975); and the efFector-cell-target-cell interaction in the T-cell-mediated response to non-H-2 antigens on the stimulator cell (CML) (for a review, see Zinkernagel and Doherty 1976). The marked similarities in the...