Antigen-Specific T Cell Clones and T Cell Factors

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the antigen-specific T cell clones and T cell factors. Distinct T cell subsets or their secreted products exert specific and/ or nonspecific regulatory signals of helper or suppressor nature. The low frequency of antigen-specific helper T cells and lack of methods for their enrichment and subsequent cultivation imposed difficulties in studies on T cell function and also hampered the chemical approach to characterize T cell factors. Recent innovations in tissue culture methods were devised to overcome these limitations. The somatic cell hybridization technique was also adapted for T cells, and populations enriched in functional T cells were fused with cancerous T cell lines, an attempt to produce T cell hybrid lines expressing specific effector functions. Clones of T cells are invaluable to clinical medicine. The availability of cloned human lymphoid cells provides clinical researchers with the tools to study cellular abnormalities that are characteristic of certain diseases and in particular, will enable studies on the biochemical defects in immune-deficiencies involving inborn errors of lymphoid cell metabolism.