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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1979 Aug;76(8):4061–4065. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.8.4061

Separation of functional subsets of human T cells by a monoclonal antibody.

E L Reinherz, P C Kung, G Goldstein, S F Schlossman
PMCID: PMC383977  PMID: 315070

Abstract

A monoclonal antibody was produced to human peripheral blood T cells. This hybridoma antibody, termed OKT4, was reactive by indirect immunofluorescence with only 55-60% of the peripheral blood T cell population (OKT4+) and unreactive with normal B cells, null cells, and macrophages. The OKT4- T cell population contained the previously described TH2+ subset that has been shown to contain cytotoxic/suppressor cells. With cell-sorter separation of OKT4+ and OKT4- cells, it was shown that these T cell subsets were functionally discrete. Both gave proliferative responses with concanavalin A, alloantigens, and phytohemagglutinin although OKT4+ cells were much more responsive to the latter. OKT4+ cells alone responded to soluble antigens whereas OKT4- cells alone were cytotoxic after alloantigenic sensitization of unfractionated T cells. However, both OKT4+ and OKT4- cells were required during sensitization for optimal development of cytotoxicity. These data suggest that the OKT4+ subset represents a helper population and that the OKT4- subset contains the cytotoxic effector population. OKT4 could be a valuable reagent for determining alterations of these functional subsets in human diseases.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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