Separation of antigen-specific lymphocytes. A new general method of releasing cells bound to nylon mesh.

Inserting a disulfide bridge between nylon and hapten or antigen allows the release of fiber bound cells by cleaving the disulfide bond with 10(-4) M 2-mercaptoethanol at 4 degrees C. Four to 12-fold enrichments in specific precursor cells could be obtained. The method is compared with the thermal release previously used. The T and B cell content of the specific fraction was determined. It is suggested that the low enrichment in plaque-forming cells of the hapten-specific fraction found after stimulation with antigen in vitro might be due to the fact that there is also enrichment for suppressor cells in the specific fraction.