Antigen presentation by hapten-specific B lymphocytes. III. Analysis of the immunoglobulin-dependent pathway of antigen presentation to interleukin 1-dependent T lymphocytes.

The ability of antigen-specific murine B lymphocytes to present antigen to a normal (nontransformed) antigen-specific, interleukin (IL)1-dependent T cell clone and to heterogeneous T lymphocytes was investigated. Hapten-specific lymphocytes present protein antigens to both the D10G.4.1 T cell clone and heterogeneous immune T cells. When the antigen bears an epitope recognized by the specific B cell, the subsequent presentation of this antigen is 10(2)-10(4)-fold more efficient, as compared to the same, but nonhaptenated protein. The requisite B lymphocyte binds hapten, is radiosensitive and is nonadherent to plastic. The hapten-specific antigen presentation is blocked by antibodies to the surface Ig receptor, while the presentation of unmodified protein is unaffected. These observations are identical to our findings in studies of B cell antigen presentation to T-T hybridomas and therefore demonstrate the generality of the immunoglobulin-dependent pathway of presentation. However, in contrast to the results with T-T hybridomas, the specific B lymphocytes are necessary, but not sufficient, to activate IL 1-dependent T cells. A third cell is required for both B lymphocyte immunoglobulin-dependent and nonspecific antigen-presentation. This cell is radioresistant, plastic adherent and of low density. The requirement for this third cell can be circumvented by supplementing cultures with highly purified IL 1. These results demonstrate that the remarkably efficient ability of B lymphocytes to present antigen is operative with factor-dependent T lymphocytes. Furthermore, conventional accessory cells also appear to play a role in this process, which is consistant with their known requirement in antigen-specific T-B interactions in the generation of antibody responses.