Contact between good friends: what limiting dilution analysis taught us.
The demonstration in the 1960s that T cells collaborated with B cells in enabling antibody responses to simple protein antigens opened up the challenge of how to investigate the interactions of two rare antigen-specific lymphocytes within a vast population. One idea was that T cells made soluble fac...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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2005
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| _version_ | 1797104106916020224 |
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| author | Waldmann, H |
| author_facet | Waldmann, H |
| author_sort | Waldmann, H |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The demonstration in the 1960s that T cells collaborated with B cells in enabling antibody responses to simple protein antigens opened up the challenge of how to investigate the interactions of two rare antigen-specific lymphocytes within a vast population. One idea was that T cells made soluble factors that could activate B cells at a distance; the other was that rare T cells and B cells came into contact. Using limiting dilution analysis, we asked the question 'How many B cells could a single T cell collaborate with in the short term?' Unequivocally, the answer was just one. This implied a need for cell contact, and coupled with the observation for genetic restriction in T-cell/B-cell co-operation, seemed to make a watertight case for direct coupling. Claims of diffusible antigen-specific factors undermined the importance of our findings at that time. Remarkably, those claims have not yet been retracted and our original findings that collaborating T cells and B cells must come into contact have never achieved the recognition that they deserved. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:29:09Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:f55d2155-4956-4cb2-b2ff-2433dfdef9b7 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:29:09Z |
| publishDate | 2005 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:f55d2155-4956-4cb2-b2ff-2433dfdef9b72022-03-27T12:26:50ZContact between good friends: what limiting dilution analysis taught us.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:f55d2155-4956-4cb2-b2ff-2433dfdef9b7EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2005Waldmann, HThe demonstration in the 1960s that T cells collaborated with B cells in enabling antibody responses to simple protein antigens opened up the challenge of how to investigate the interactions of two rare antigen-specific lymphocytes within a vast population. One idea was that T cells made soluble factors that could activate B cells at a distance; the other was that rare T cells and B cells came into contact. Using limiting dilution analysis, we asked the question 'How many B cells could a single T cell collaborate with in the short term?' Unequivocally, the answer was just one. This implied a need for cell contact, and coupled with the observation for genetic restriction in T-cell/B-cell co-operation, seemed to make a watertight case for direct coupling. Claims of diffusible antigen-specific factors undermined the importance of our findings at that time. Remarkably, those claims have not yet been retracted and our original findings that collaborating T cells and B cells must come into contact have never achieved the recognition that they deserved. |
| spellingShingle | Waldmann, H Contact between good friends: what limiting dilution analysis taught us. |
| title | Contact between good friends: what limiting dilution analysis taught us. |
| title_full | Contact between good friends: what limiting dilution analysis taught us. |
| title_fullStr | Contact between good friends: what limiting dilution analysis taught us. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Contact between good friends: what limiting dilution analysis taught us. |
| title_short | Contact between good friends: what limiting dilution analysis taught us. |
| title_sort | contact between good friends what limiting dilution analysis taught us |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT waldmannh contactbetweengoodfriendswhatlimitingdilutionanalysistaughtus |