Expansion of human lymphocyte populations expressing specific immune reactivities. III. Specific colonies, either cytotoxic or proliferative, obtained from a population of responder cells primed in vitro. Preliminary immunogenetic analysis.

Human alloreactive cell lines were maintained in culture over prolonged periods of time using conditioned medium. Primed lymphocyte typing reactivity was observed in these T cell lines for only 1 mo, but these T cell lines have remained for more than 7 mo highly and specifically cytotoxic. Using as growth promoter an irradiated autologous feeder consisting of irradiated peripheral blood lymphocytes and the lectin leucoagglutinin, we have derived by limiting dilution cloning of in vitro primed allogeneic combinations, primary colonies (or primary clones) with monofunctional immune reactivities: either cytotoxic (the rarest observed) or PLT reactive (the majority of the colonies). Furthermore, each monofunctional primary colony when tested for PLT or CML reactivity on a panel of unrelated PBL, always showed a restricted specificity when compared to the original primed population. The PLT reactivity of each of the primary clones was short lasting in contrast to their growth potential. The CML reactivity of the primary clones, as for the T cell lines, was long lasting as was their growth potential.