T-cell help for the IgA response: the function of T cells from different lymphoid organs in regulating the proportions of plasma cells expressing various isotypes

Differential distribution of IgA-specific primed Lyt 2- T cells (TH) in favor of gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) has been proposed to account for the high proportion of IgA-producing plasma cells at mucosal versus nonmucosal sites. We find, however, that GALT TH primed enterically with sheep red blood cells (SRBC) contain no more help for IgA responses than peripheral lymph node (PN) TH primed subcutaneously. Moreover, GALT TH are only poorly primed by enterically administered soluble protein antigen and therefore provide less help for all isotypes than PN TH primed subcutaneously with the same antigen. On the other hand, supernatants of GALT TH stimulated with concanavalin A (Con A) in vitro do help higher IgA:IgG plaque-forming cell (PFC) ratios in cultures with 2,4, 6-trinitrophenyl-SRBC (TNP-SRBC) than supernatants from PN and spleen, indicating that, when appropriately stimulated, GALT TH are capable of promoting relatively higher IgA responses than TH from other sources. Responses elicited by either SRBC-primed TH or splenic Con A supernatants in the presence of TNP-SRBC contained higher IgA:IgG PFC ratios than those elicited by linked recognition in the presence of haptenated soluble protein carrier.