Steric hindrance of CON A receptor sites by antigen: a possible explanation of Ir regulated responses.

Spleen cells from mice that respond poorly (C57BL/6) or well (CBA, C3H/HeJ AND B6D2F1) to DNP-BGG, an antigen under Ir gene regulation, were cultured with the T cell mitogen Con A and varying concentrations of DNP-BGG and DNP-KLH. It was found that DNP-BGG dpressed the responses of C57BL/6 spleen cells to Con A stimulation to a much greater degree than did DNP-KLH; the Con A stimulated responses of spleen cells from the other strains were impaired equally and less severely by both antigens. The possible implications of these findings with regard to Ir gene regulation of thymus-dependent immune responses were discussed.