Interactions Between Two Antigens Governed by the Poly-L-lysine Gene: Failure of One to Inhibit Competitively an in Vitro Response to the Other 1

Summary

Poly-L-glutamic acid-poly-L-lysine (GL) and dinitrophenyl-poly-L-lysine (DNP-PLL) are two antigens to which the capacity of guinea pigs to make cell-mediated immune responses appears to be governed in common by a single, dominant, histocompatibility-linked gene, the poly-L-lysine (PLL) gene, although the responses to the two antigens are individually antigen-specific. The hypothesis that this common genetic control might be associated with the involvement at some stage in the antigen-recognition process of a receptor common to both antigens and susceptible to competitive inhibition was tested by incubating, in the presence of DNP-PLL alone and of DNP-PLL together with excess GL, cultures of lymph node cells from animals possessing the PLL gene and previously immunized with DNP-PLL. The presence of GL did not inhibit the response to DNP-PLL (as judged by incorporation of radioactive thymidine), thus providing no evidence for the hypothesized common receptor for the two antigens.