Requirement of certain epitope specificities of glycosylation inhibiting factor for the suppression of in vivo IgE and IgG antibody responses

The ovalbumin (OVA)-specific T cell hybridoma 71B1, which constitutively secretes glycosylation inhibiting factor (GIF) and is specific for the immunogenic epitope represented by amino acids 323-339 in the OVA molecules, failed to form GIF having affinity for nominal antigen upon stimulation with OVA-pulsed antigen-presenting cells (APC). However, the GIF produced by the antigen-stimulated 71B1 cells bound to the mAb 14-12, which is specific for the antigen-binding chain of effector type suppressor T cell factor (TseF), and to mAb specific for TCR. The GIF constitutively released from unstimulated 71B1 cells failed to bind to any of these antibodies. Gelfiltration of GIF preparations showed that the 14-12⁺ GIF from the antigen-stimulated 71B1 cells are composed of 80-100 and 25-35 kDa species, while the GIF from the antigen-stimulated cells was 12-15 kDa. Reduction and alkylation treatment of the GIF from the antigen-stimulated cells resulted in the disappearance of the 80-100 and 25-35 kDa GIF, which was accompanied by the formation of the 12-15 kDa GIFO. Thus, the GIF from the antigen-stimulated 71B1 cells was similar to the previously described OVA-binding GIF from the 231F1 cells with respect to their antigenic structures and molecular size, and both factors appear to be composed of the 14-12⁺ polypeptide chain and 12-15 kDa non-specific GIF. However, the GIF from the antigen-stimulated 71B1 cells lacked affinity for the native OVA or synthetic peptide 323-339, and failed to suppress the in vivo antibody response to dlnitrophenyl (DNP)-OVA. In contrast, the OVA-binding GIF has affinity for native OVA and the peptide 307-317, to which the cell source of the factor is specific, and suppressed the in vivo anti-hapten antibody response to DNP-OVA. The results suggest that formation of antigen-specific TaF is confined to T cells with certain epitope specificities. It was also found that the OVA-binding GIF failed to suppress the in vivo anti-hapten antibody response to DNP-conjugates of urea-denatured OVA (UD-OVA), which does not bind OVA-binding GIF. However, APC pulsed with UD-OVA appear to express the epitope 307-317 for which the OVA-binding GIF has affinity. The results collectively suggest that the affinity of GIF for an immunizing antigen, rather than processed antigen, is required for immunosuppression.