Suppression of Stimulation in Mixed Leukocyte Culture by Newborn Splenic Lymphocytes in the Mouse

Abstract

Abstract Recent evidence (1, 2) has suggested that newborn human lymphocytes exert a suppressive effect on proliferation of adult lymphocytes in mixed luekocyte culture (MLC). Using mitotic indices as a measure of cell proliferation Olding et al. (1) have shown that 80% of the dividing cells in MLC containing male cord blood lymphocytes and adult female peripheral blood lymphocytes are of cord blood origin. An attractive explanation for this phenomenon is that newborn lymphocytes are capable of suppressing proliferation of the adult lymphocyte population. More recently Olding and Oldstone (2) showed that newborn cells which were responsible for suppressing proliferation of maternal lymphocytes resided in the T lymphocyte population. The objective of the present study was to determine in a murine system the effect of newborn versus adult stimulatory cells on the proliferation of responder cells in MLC.