Immune responses during human Schistosoma mansoni. XVII. Recognition by monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibodies of several idiotopes on a monoclonal anti-soluble schistosomal egg antigen antibody and anti-soluble schistosomal egg antigen antibodies from pati

We present a method for the examination of antiidiotypic cell-mediated reactivity during chronic human infections. Pooled and individual sera from patients with schistosomiasis. mansoni were purified on immunoaffinity columns of schistosomal egg antigens (SEA). The eluates contained anti-SEA antibodies, but not SEA. These antibody preparations, and their F(ab')2 fragments, stim-ulated dose-dependent proliferation of peripheral blood mono-nuclear cells (PBMN) and T lymphocytes from some, but not all active or former schistosomiasis mansoni patients, and could do so autologously. Stimulation required presentation by plastic-adherent cells. The eluates did not stimulate PBMN from persons who had never had schistosomiasis. Affinity-purified anti-SEA antibodies from former patients (cured for>10 yr) did not stim-ulate PBMN from patients with active infections. Reabsorption on SEA columns removed stimulatory activity from the eluates. We propose that multiclonal, SEA-related idiotypes expressed by some anti-SEA antibodies stimulate proliferation of T lym-phocytes that express antiidiotypic specificities