Studies on immunological aberration and its pathogenetic roles in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Part 2. Studies on suppressor T cell function

Peripheral mononuclear cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE), when incubated for 48hr with or without concanavalinA(ConA), were found to be capable of inhibiting the pokeweed mitogen(PWM)-induced polyclonal immunoglobulin(Ig) secretion of cells from normal individuals. Furthermore, anti-T cell antibody in sera from patients with SLE could not preferentially kill the precursor cells of ConA-induced suppressor cells. However, in SLE these suppressor cells did not significantly affect the Ig secretion of autologous B cells. These results suggest that defective suppressive activity in patients with SLE does not occur at the T cell level, but that it is most likely due too the defect of B cells in recognizing suppressive information from suppressor T cells, which is caused by in vivo polyclonal B cell activation.