DOES A MARROW DEPENDENT CELL REGULATE SUPPRESSOR CELL ACTIVITY?

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on some evidence to support the interpretation that suppressor cell activity may be regulated by a marrow-dependent cell and is elevated when this regulatory cell is absent. 89 Sr treatment destroys cells of the bone marrow and hemopoiesis is largely shifted to the spleen. To investigate more directly the relationship between NK (YAC-1) activity and suppressor cells, a model was established, which involved the transfer of spleen cells from 89 Sr treated mice to normal lethally irradiated syngeneic recipients. To further explore the hypothesis that marrow dependent cells may regulate suppressor cell activity, irradiated recipient mice were reconstituted with mixtures of spleen cells from 89 Sr-treated mice and normal bone marrow or spleen cells. The observations that bone marrow cells generate NK (YAC-1) activity and other marrow-dependent cell function in recipient mice more rapidly than do normal spleen cells and are also more efficient than spleen cells in preventing the generation of suppressor cells would be consistent with this interpretation. While the evidence for a regulatory marrow-dependent cell is inferential rather than direct, its existence is an attractive hypothesis.