Analysis of the Anti-Self + TNP Immune Response: T Cell Lines, Clones and Hybridomas

An immune response induced by the presentation of the hapten trinitrophenyl (TNP) on syngeneic cells can result from in vitro stimulation of T cells with syngeneic cells after trinitrobenzenesulfonate (TNBS) treatment (1) or after TNP-protein adsorption (2), or in vivo by trinitrochlorobenzene (TNCB) skin sensitization (3,4). The heterogeneity of T cell functions (5–9) is evident from the description of effector cells, including cytotoxic T cells (CTL) (1,2,4), helper T cells (TH) for CTL precursors (pCTL) (5) or B cells (6,7), as well as suppressor cells (Ts) (8–10) and delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) effector cells (3). In terms of the fine specificity of the response to TNBS-treated cells, it was not clear whether the apparently non-major histo-compatibility complex (MHC) -restricted components of CTL responses in mice (11,12) and humans (13) could originate from T cell recognition of non-MHC and/or nonpolymorphic cell surface antigens (13) in addition to the recognition of the known class I MHC antigens. In order to analyse such a heterogenous response in terms of functional T cell subsets (14,15) and fine specificity of T cells (16,17) we established T cells lines proliferating in response to TNBS-treated syngeneic cells (14) in which we analysed interacting T cell populations (15) and from which we derived individual T cell clones (15–17). The study of the mechanism of action of TH for the development of CTL from thymic precursor cells (5,18) led us to hope that T cell hybridomas might help in the analysis of products secreted by such TH (18). Here we will briefly summarize results obtained with such procedures.