Speculations on the specificity of suppression

Abstract

The mechanisms of antigen-specific T-cell suppression still remain inadequately explained. There has been a prolonged and unsuccessful hunt for ‘suppressor cell markers’. This has largely deflected attention from a critical question — namely, what molecular structures are specifically recognized by cells mediating antigen-specific T-cell suppression? Here, Richard Batchelor and colleagues present the hypothesis that the structures ‘seen’ by these cells are in principle the same as those recognized by other T cells, that is, a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule holding a peptide in its binding cleft. In the particular circumstances of specific suppression, the peptide is derived from the variable (idiotypic) regions of the T-cell receptor of the target clone.