To determine if lymphocytes are able to discriminate between self and nonself, the polyclonal B-cell activator lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was injected into mice, and sera from those mice were tested at different times for their cytotoxic effect against autologous and syngeneic isotope-labeled spleen cells in the presence of complement. It was regularly found that LPS caused the appearance of cytotoxic activity in sera detectable against autologous and syngeneic spleen cells. This cytotoxicity was found to be complement dependent, and it was abolished by absorbing the sera with the target cells. LPS did not induce cytotoxic serum activity in the LPS nonresponder strain C3H/HeJ. When the serum was passed through an anti-mouse Ig column, the eluted sample completely lost its cytotoxicity. It is likely, therefore, that these cytotoxic factors are immunoglobulins with specificity for self, suggesting that tolerance to thymus-dependent autoantigens does not exist at the B-cell level. The implications of this possibility for the understanding of the triggering mechanism of B lymphocytes and for self-nonself discrimination are discussed.
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