Regulatory Substances Produced by Lymphocytes

Abstract

Abstract The conditions necessary for production of inhibitor of DNA synthesis (IDS) by rat lymphocytes were investigated. In concanavalin A (Con A)-stimulated lymph node cell (LNC) cultures, IDS production was not detected in the culture supernatant during the first 24 hr, and it increased gradually after that to reach a maximum at 3 to 4 days. When the cells were pretreated with mitomycin C, IDS was not produced, suggesting that DNA synthesis of LNC or a LNC subpopulation is necessary for IDS production. In contrast, Con A-stimulated spleen cells produced a high level of IDS within 24 hr, and its production fell off sharply thereafter. Con A-stimulated rat thymocytes also produced IDS reaching a maximum at 2 to 3 days. However, thymus cells from rats treated with hydrocortisone 48 hr previously did not produce IDS. This finding implies that cortisol-sensitive (cortical) thymocytes are capable of producing IDS and cortisol-resistant (medullary) thymocytes are not. IDS production by lymphoblasts was proportional to cell number and unaffected either by cell density (1 to 10 × 106/ml) or by the concomitant presence of normal cells from spleen, lymph node, or thymus. Thus Con A-stimulated cells, after becoming blasts, appear to produce IDS automatically without affecting or being affected by other cells. Both spleen and thymus cells from rats injected with a large dose of antigen (ovalbumin, 100 mg, i.p.) 24 hr in advance produced substantial amounts of IDS in culture within 24 hr in the absence of mitogen or additional antigen, but not the cells from rats injected with an immunizing dose (1 mg) of the same antigen. The cells producing IDS in the spleen were shown to be adherent to glass wool, and those in the thymus were partially so. IDS production by antigen-stimulated spleen cells was abrogated by injecting rats with bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR) at 0 and 12 hr after the ovalbumin. These findings suggest that a subpopulation of adherent spleen cells (possibly resembling cortical thymocytes), which begins to proliferate within a few hours after a large dose of systemic antigen, produces IDS. This may account for increased nonspecific suppressor activity observed at the same time.