MHC Restriction of V-V Interactions in Serum IgG

is based on Jerne’s hypothesis, and provides a basis for understanding many of the phenomena of adaptive immunity. The theory includes the postulate that the repertoire of serum IgG molecules is regulated by T cells, with the result that IgG molecules express V region determinants that mimic V region determinants present on suppressor T cells. In this paper we describe rapid binding between purified murine serum IgG of a given strain and IgG of the same strain and also between IgG from MHC-matched mice, but not between serum IgG preparations of mice with different MHC genes. We interpret this surprising finding in terms of a model in which IgG molecules are selected to have both anti-anti-(self MHC class II) and anti-antianti-(self MHC class II) specificity.