Suppressed Proliferative Response of Spleen T Cells from Metallothionein Null Mice

To investigate the role of metal‐binding protein, metallothionein (MT), in lymphocyte activation, the mitogen‐induced proliferation of freshly isolated spleen cells was compared among MT‐I, II null, and control 129/Sv mice. Spleen cells from MT null mice exhibited a markedly reduced proliferation compared with control cells when stimulated by concanavalin A or anti‐CD3(∈) mAb, but not by lipopolysaccharide, indicating that only the response of T...