ABSTRACT
The active role of suppressor cells in sustaining allografts in certain neonatally tolerant animals was indicated by experiments showing that lymphoid cells from mice were made tolerant by spleen membrane fragments could transfer tolerance to normal syngeneic recipients. The cytotoxic/suppressor T subset has the T antigens T1, T3, T5 whereas the inducer/helper set has antigens T1, T3, and T4. The fact that the predominant suppressor cell population is a T cell subset still leaves open the ranking of organ site(s) for these cells. Most important the T1, T3, T5 sets of lymphocytes suppresses both autologous proliferation to alloantigens as well as B cell immunoglobulin synthesis. The precise reason for the defective T suppressor response was unknown but may have been related to corticosteroids. Dorsch and Roser found that the suppressor cells as part of the recirculating pool of lymphocytes were represented differently among various lymphoid organs.
