In vivo administration of histoincompatible lymphocytes leads to rapid functional deletion of cytotoxic T lymphocyte precursors

It is well established that a single intravenous injection of F₁ lymphocytes can rapidly and specifically reduce the ability of a parental recipient to generate CTL against donor alloantigens in a subsequent MLR. By fluorescently labeling the injected cells, we have been able to identify, and if desired, remove them in cell suspensions prepared from recipient spleen and lymph node. The injected cells, whether F₁ or syngeneic, appeared to form part of the normal recirculating pool. Removal of injected F₁ cells from responder lymph node or spleen cell suspensions had no effect on the response reduction observed in the 5-d in vitro MLR (typically 80% reduction for responder cells taken 2 d after injection of F₁ cells). When the frequency of CTL precursors (CTLp) was measured by limiting dilution, it was reduced to the same degree as the MLR response, implying that response reduction is due to a reduction in the number of activatable CTL in the responder cell suspension. An equal mixture of responder cells from treated (i.e., F₁ injected) and control mice gave a measured CTLp frequency equivalent to the average of the separate frequencies, implying the absence of suppressor cells active in vitro. Labeled F₁ cells recovered from a first recipient could be used to induce response reduction in a second recipient. The results are discussed in terms of APCs that functionally delete rather than stimulate CTLp that recognize them (i.e., a 'veto mechanism'). These experiments appear to rule out a role for in vivo-induced suppressor cells up to 8 d after injection of semialogeneic cells but do not address the question of whether they are induced at later times.