ABSTRACT

Possible physiological roles played by the cytolytic activity of CD4⁺ T cells are discussed. Since CD4⁺ T cells recognize antigens presented on class II MHC molecules, the target cells for the lytic activity should be professional antigen presenting cells. The effect on B cells might be suppression of specific antibody production. The effect on dendritic cells might be facilitation of turnover of dendritic cells immigrating from local tissue into draining lymphonodes with antigenic information.