Inhibition of Cell-mediated Cytotoxicity in the Rat by Anti-thymocyte Serum.

Fourteen days after injection with Detroit-6 cells (a human cell line) rats have high titres of antibody capable of inducing cytotoxicity towards Detroit-6 cells in normal spleen cells. At the same time, the spleen cells from the injected rats are cytotoxic for Detroit-6 cells in vitro. However, killing by allergized spleen cells is apparently not entirely antibody induced, since heterologous anti-thymocyte sera (absorbed with rat bone marrow cells) inhibit target cell killing by spleen cells from injected rats but do not appreciably inhibit killing of antibody-coated target cells by normal spleen cells. Wistar spleen cells 'activated' by transfer into irradiated August rats are cytotoxic for August hepatoma cells. This cytotoxicity is also inhibited by the absorbed anti-thymocyte sera. It is suggested that the cytotoxicity of spleen cells in vitro, in both these allogeneic and xenogeneic systems, is mediated by thymus-derived (T) cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]