# REGULATORY CIRCUITRY USING DEFINED PROTEIN ANTIGENS

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 1989 · $190,371

## Abstract

The requirements for growing and propagating antigen-specific
and idiotype-specific suppressor T cells will be studied, with the
aim of developing a reproducible cloning strategy.  In order to
accomplish this, the response will be initiated with Ts-inducing
determinants and appropriate specific accessory inducer cells, as
well as driving the response (a) by using conjugates of mitogens
and specific ligands, or (b) performing cyclic enrichment (specific
selection and nonspecific stimulation) and by using combinations
of special growth factors.  Recent evidence points to the
reactivity of regulatory cells with the recognition structures on
MHC-restricted T cells.  This T-T network and especially, the
specificity of its idiotypic interaction, will be the focus of these
studies.  The development of such regulatory cells in fetal thymic
lobe cultures will be studied and intercellular restrictions between
closely related strains (B6 and its Ia mutant strain, bm12) will be
examined.  The study of tolerance induced by immunogenic or
suppressogenic determinants will be completed and the
contributions of clonal inactivation vs. suppressive cell
involvement in tolerance induction will be detailed.  Further, the
induction of tolerance in various regulatory subpopulations of T
cells will be investigated among antigen-specific and idiotype-
specific sets.  In the lysozyme and beta-galactosidase systems,
small peptide are known to induce suppression.  These "suppressor
determinants" (SD) will be studied in detail to determine each
essential residue and whether it is required for T suppressor cell
binding (or is related to MHC function); also, it can be asked
whether certain "Th" cells have a suppressive phenotype.  To
investigate the mechanism of Ts action, "grafts" of an SD onto an
immunogenic peptide will be made and the requirements for this
antigen-bridging suppression studied.  A model peptide containing
a Ts-inducing determinant, a Th-inducing determinant and a B cell
determinant will be utilized to study the positional and specificity
requirements associated with cell interaction.  The interrelations
of the different predominant idiotypes of the primary and
secondary antibody responses to lysozyme will be studied.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3124909
- **Project number:** 5R01AI011183-17
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **SAM.gov UEI:** RN64EPNH8JC6
- **Principal Investigator:** ELI E SERCARZ
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1989
- **Award amount:** $190,371
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1978-04-01 → 1993-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3124909

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3124909, REGULATORY CIRCUITRY USING DEFINED PROTEIN ANTIGENS (5R01AI011183-17). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3124909. Licensed CC0.

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