Suppression of cytotoxic T cell induction in vivo by prodigiosin 25-C.

Prodigiosin 25-C (PrG25-C) was discovered as an immunosuppressant in the course of our screening for immunomodulating substances. In this system, PrG25-C inhibited T lymphocytes proliferation and was less suppressive against B lymphocytes. PrG25-C was also a powerful inhibitor of cytotoxic T cell induction by mixed lymphocyte reaction and completely suppressed induction of H-2 specific cytotoxic cells at 12.7 nM. PrG25-C also inhibited in vivo induction of H-2 restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg but had little myelotoxicity because numbers of blood leukocytes and splenocytes of PrG25-C-treated mice were comparable to those of nonsensitized mice. No inhibitory effects of PrG25-C were observed on the production of anti-SRBC antibody. These results indicate that PrG25-C is a T-lymphocyte-specific immunosuppressant.