Suppressive effects of C3b on monocyte-dependent T cell proliferation.

The effect of C3b treatment of human monocytes on secondary antigen-dependent T cell response was studied. When antigen-specific T cell blasts were cultivated together with C3b-treated monocytes the proliferative response was inhibited in a dose-dependent fashion. This suppressive effect was specific for C3b because heat-inactivated C3b or buffer alone had no influence on T cell proliferation. In part, this suppressive effect is mediated through a C3b-induced decreased expression of class II antigens on the surface of treated monocytes, but another suppressive mechanism exists because the C3b pretreatment of monocytes also led to an inhibition of the proliferative response in a class II ant…