Helpers and Suppressors: On Fictional Characters in Immunology

Journal of the History of Biology

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 381-396

  Keating, Peter ^a   Cambrosio, Alberto ^b  

^a UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL   (Canada)

^b MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HISTORY; IMMUNOLOGY; KILLER CELL; LITERATURE;

ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; KILLER CELLS; METAPHOR;

EID: 0031229115     PISSN: 00225010     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1004243822070     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. Ivan Roitt, Essential Immunology, 8th ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), p. 199.
2. It is precisely this common aspect that has led several science studies scholars to apply literary theory and semiotics to science. See, e.g, Peter Dear, ed., The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument: Historical Studies (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991); Burno Latour, "Pasteur on Lactic Acid Yeast: A Partial Semiotic Analysis," Configurations, 1 (1993), 129-145; Greg Myers, Writing Biology: Texts and the Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). Just as there is an important sense in which literary characters can be said to be or become real, two decades of science studies have documented the constructed nature of scientific entities and events. On the reality of literary entities, see Thomas G. Pavel, Fictional Worlds (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), esp. pp. 32-42; Umberto Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994). For a recent overview of science studies, see Andrew Pickering, ed., Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
3. It is precisely this common aspect that has led several science studies scholars to apply literary theory and semiotics to science. See, e.g, Peter Dear, ed., The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument: Historical Studies (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991); Burno Latour, "Pasteur on Lactic Acid Yeast: A Partial Semiotic Analysis," Configurations, 1 (1993), 129-145; Greg Myers, Writing Biology: Texts and the Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). Just as there is an important sense in which literary characters can be said to be or become real, two decades of science studies have documented the constructed nature of scientific entities and events. On the reality of literary entities, see Thomas G. Pavel, Fictional Worlds (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), esp. pp. 32-42; Umberto Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994). For a recent overview of science studies, see Andrew Pickering, ed., Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
4. It is precisely this common aspect that has led several science studies scholars to apply literary theory and semiotics to science. See, e.g, Peter Dear, ed., The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument: Historical Studies (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991); Burno Latour, "Pasteur on Lactic Acid Yeast: A Partial Semiotic Analysis," Configurations, 1 (1993), 129-145; Greg Myers, Writing Biology: Texts and the Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). Just as there is an important sense in which literary characters can be said to be or become real, two decades of science studies have documented the constructed nature of scientific entities and events. On the reality of literary entities, see Thomas G. Pavel, Fictional Worlds (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), esp. pp. 32-42; Umberto Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994). For a recent overview of science studies, see Andrew Pickering, ed., Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
5. It is precisely this common aspect that has led several science studies scholars to apply literary theory and semiotics to science. See, e.g, Peter Dear, ed., The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument: Historical Studies (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991); Burno Latour, "Pasteur on Lactic Acid Yeast: A Partial Semiotic Analysis," Configurations, 1 (1993), 129-145; Greg Myers, Writing Biology: Texts and the Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). Just as there is an important sense in which literary characters can be said to be or become real, two decades of science studies have documented the constructed nature of scientific entities and events. On the reality of literary entities, see Thomas G. Pavel, Fictional Worlds (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), esp. pp. 32-42; Umberto Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994). For a recent overview of science studies, see Andrew Pickering, ed., Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
6. It is precisely this common aspect that has led several science studies scholars to apply literary theory and semiotics to science. See, e.g, Peter Dear, ed., The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument: Historical Studies (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991); Burno Latour, "Pasteur on Lactic Acid Yeast: A Partial Semiotic Analysis," Configurations, 1 (1993), 129-145; Greg Myers, Writing Biology: Texts and the Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). Just as there is an important sense in which literary characters can be said to be or become real, two decades of science studies have documented the constructed nature of scientific entities and events. On the reality of literary entities, see Thomas G. Pavel, Fictional Worlds (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), esp. pp. 32-42; Umberto Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994). For a recent overview of science studies, see Andrew Pickering, ed., Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
7. It is precisely this common aspect that has led several science studies scholars to apply literary theory and semiotics to science. See, e.g, Peter Dear, ed., The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument: Historical Studies (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991); Burno Latour, "Pasteur on Lactic Acid Yeast: A Partial Semiotic Analysis," Configurations, 1 (1993), 129-145; Greg Myers, Writing Biology: Texts and the Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). Just as there is an important sense in which literary characters can be said to be or become real, two decades of science studies have documented the constructed nature of scientific entities and events. On the reality of literary entities, see Thomas G. Pavel, Fictional Worlds (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), esp. pp. 32-42; Umberto Eco, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994). For a recent overview of science studies, see Andrew Pickering, ed., Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
8. On the controversy surrounding Ehrlich's work, see Alberto Cambrosio, Daniel Jacobi, and Peter Keating, "Ehrlich's 'Beautiful Pictures' and the Controversial Beginnings of Immunological Imagery," Isis, 84 (1993), 662-699.
9. See, e.g., Emily Martin, Flexible Bodies. Tracking Immunity in American Culture from the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994). Immunologists have also commented on the use of metaphors in their discipline; see, e.g., Fred Karush, "Metaphors in Immunology," in Immunology, 1930-1980, ed. Pauline M. H. Mazumdar (Toronto: Wall and Thompson, 1989), pp. 73-80. For a philosophically oriented discussion of the issue of metaphors in immunology, see Alfred I. Tauber, The Immune Self: Theory of Metaphor? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
10. See, e.g., Emily Martin, Flexible Bodies. Tracking Immunity in American Culture from the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994). Immunologists have also commented on the use of metaphors in their discipline; see, e.g., Fred Karush, "Metaphors in Immunology," in Immunology, 1930-1980, ed. Pauline M. H. Mazumdar (Toronto: Wall and Thompson, 1989), pp. 73-80. For a philosophically oriented discussion of the issue of metaphors in immunology, see Alfred I. Tauber, The Immune Self: Theory of Metaphor? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
11. See, e.g., Emily Martin, Flexible Bodies. Tracking Immunity in American Culture from the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994). Immunologists have also commented on the use of metaphors in their discipline; see, e.g., Fred Karush, "Metaphors in Immunology," in Immunology, 1930-1980, ed. Pauline M. H. Mazumdar (Toronto: Wall and Thompson, 1989), pp. 73-80. For a philosophically oriented discussion of the issue of metaphors in immunology, see Alfred I. Tauber, The Immune Self: Theory of Metaphor? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
12. This process is not limited to paradigm changes; rather, it is constitutive of ongoing scientific activities, starting with microinteractions at the laboratory bench. For a now paradigmatic discussion of the micro (de)construction of facts, see Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts, 2nd. ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986).
13. The analogy, it could be objected, is misplaced, since a fundamental difference exists between, say, Hamlet and CD4 cells: the former remains, in the end, a fictional, literary entity; the latter are simultaneously discursive and material. While one can readily see how this should be so for scientists (and novelists), it is not so readily apparent how this is so for historians and sociologists of science (and literary critics). Pragmatically speaking, historians and sociologists have about the same grasp on a virus as a literary critic has on Hamlet. Just as historians and sociologists are unable to make viruses go away, literary critics are unable to bring Hamlet to life. A clever novelist may perhaps be able to manipulate Hamlet, just as scientists manipulate viruses. Like the literary critic, however, historians' and sociologists' relations with the entities they describe remain purely discursive.
14. The point that phenomena (or properties) and entities accounting for those phenomena are co-produced is strongly argued in H. M. Collins, Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1985). For a more recent discussion of the material culture of science, see Andrew Pickering, The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).
15. The point that phenomena (or properties) and entities accounting for those phenomena are co-produced is strongly argued in H. M. Collins, Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1985). For a more recent discussion of the material culture of science, see Andrew Pickering, The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).
16. For an ethnomethodological analysis of the distinction between facts and artifacts in laboratory life, see Michael Lynch, Art and Artefact in Laboratory Science: A Study of Shop Work and Shop Talk in a Research Laboratory (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985).
17. Göran Möller, "Do Suppressor T Cells Exist?" Scand. J. Immunol., 27 (1988), 247-250; D. R. Green and D. R. Webb, "Saying the 'S-Word' in Public," Immunol. Today, 14 (1993), 523-525; E. Sercarz, A Oki, and G. Gammon, "Central versus Peripheral Tolerance: Clonal Interactivation versus Suppressor T Cells, The Second Half of the 'Thirty Years War'," Immunol. Suppl., 2 (1989), 9-14.
18. Göran Möller, "Do Suppressor T Cells Exist?" Scand. J. Immunol., 27 (1988), 247-250; D. R. Green and D. R. Webb, "Saying the 'S-Word' in Public," Immunol. Today, 14 (1993), 523-525; E. Sercarz, A Oki, and G. Gammon, "Central versus Peripheral Tolerance: Clonal Interactivation versus Suppressor T Cells, The Second Half of the 'Thirty Years War'," Immunol. Suppl., 2 (1989), 9-14.
19. Göran Möller, "Do Suppressor T Cells Exist?" Scand. J. Immunol., 27 (1988), 247-250; D. R. Green and D. R. Webb, "Saying the 'S-Word' in Public," Immunol. Today, 14 (1993), 523-525; E. Sercarz, A Oki, and G. Gammon, "Central versus Peripheral Tolerance: Clonal Interactivation versus Suppressor T Cells, The Second Half of the 'Thirty Years War'," Immunol. Suppl., 2 (1989), 9-14.
20. Lying somewhere between helpers and suppressors on the ontological continuum are such entities as so-called natural killer cells, whose existence is generally accepted, but whose status as an actual cell type or a function remains undecided. Space prevents us from going into details, but see L. L. Lanier, J. H. Phillips, J. Hackett Jr., M. Tutt, and V. Kumar, "Natural Killer Cells: Definition of a Cell Type Rather than a Function," J. Immunol., 137 (1986), 2735-2739; R. W. Finberg, "Natural Killer Cells: Function in Search of a Phenotype," Year Immunol., 4 (1989), 193-200. For a sociological analysis of the clinical use of natural killer cells, see Ilana Löwy, Between Bench and Bedside: Science, Healing, and Interleukin-2 in a Cancer Ward (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996).
21. Lying somewhere between helpers and suppressors on the ontological continuum are such entities as so-called natural killer cells, whose existence is generally accepted, but whose status as an actual cell type or a function remains undecided. Space prevents us from going into details, but see L. L. Lanier, J. H. Phillips, J. Hackett Jr., M. Tutt, and V. Kumar, "Natural Killer Cells: Definition of a Cell Type Rather than a Function," J. Immunol., 137 (1986), 2735-2739; R. W. Finberg, "Natural Killer Cells: Function in Search of a Phenotype," Year Immunol., 4 (1989), 193-200. For a sociological analysis of the clinical use of natural killer cells, see Ilana Löwy, Between Bench and Bedside: Science, Healing, and Interleukin-2 in a Cancer Ward (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996).
22. Lying somewhere between helpers and suppressors on the ontological continuum are such entities as so-called natural killer cells, whose existence is generally accepted, but whose status as an actual cell type or a function remains undecided. Space prevents us from going into details, but see L. L. Lanier, J. H. Phillips, J. Hackett Jr., M. Tutt, and V. Kumar, "Natural Killer Cells: Definition of a Cell Type Rather than a Function," J. Immunol., 137 (1986), 2735-2739; R. W. Finberg, "Natural Killer Cells: Function in Search of a Phenotype," Year Immunol., 4 (1989), 193-200. For a sociological analysis of the clinical use of natural killer cells, see Ilana Löwy, Between Bench and Bedside: Science, Healing, and Interleukin-2 in a Cancer Ward (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996).
23. See, for the case of microbes, Burno Latour, The Pasteurization of France (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); and for the case of electromagnetic fields, Lisa M. Mitchell and Alberto Cambrosio, "The Invisible Topography of Power: Electromagnetic Fields, Bodies and the Environment," Soc. Stud. Sci. (forthcoming). For a theoretical discussion of the production of hybrid entities, see Burno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993).
24. See, for the case of microbes, Burno Latour, The Pasteurization of France (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); and for the case of electromagnetic fields, Lisa M. Mitchell and Alberto Cambrosio, "The Invisible Topography of Power: Electromagnetic Fields, Bodies and the Environment," Soc. Stud. Sci. (forthcoming). For a theoretical discussion of the production of hybrid entities, see Burno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993).
25. See, for the case of microbes, Burno Latour, The Pasteurization of France (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); and for the case of electromagnetic fields, Lisa M. Mitchell and Alberto Cambrosio, "The Invisible Topography of Power: Electromagnetic Fields, Bodies and the Environment," Soc. Stud. Sci. (forthcoming). For a theoretical discussion of the production of hybrid entities, see Burno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993).
26. M. Navarro, "U.S. Widens Rules on Who Has AIDS," New York Times 8 August, 1991, p. D21.
27. Alberto Cambrosio and Peter Keating, "A Matter of FACS: Constituting Novel Entities in Immunology," Med. Antrop. Quart., 6 (1992), 362-384.
28. Alberto Cambrosio and Peter Keating, Exquisite Specificity: The Monoclonal Antibody Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
29. Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio, "'Ours Is an Engineering Approach': Flow Cytometry and the Constitution of Human T-Cell Subsets," J. Hist. Biol., 27 (1994), 449-479.
30. Stuart F. Schlossman, L. Boumsell, W. Gilks, J. M. Harlan, T. Kishimoto, C. Morimoto, J. Ritz, S. Shaw, R. L. Silverstein, T. A. Springer, T. F. Tedder, and R. F. Todd, Leukocyte Typing V (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
31. This has led to a somewhat strange situation, namely, the production of a set of surface molecules without a function, especially not an obvious immunological one. See Cambrosio and Keating, "A Matter of FACS" (above, n. 13).
32. Ellis L. Reinherz and Stuart F. Schlossman, "Regulation of the Immune Response: Inducer and Suppressor T Lymphocyte Subsets in Man," New Engl. J. Med., 303 (1980), 370.
33. Throughout this article, we resort to the notion of experimental system as discussed by Rheinberger; see e.g., Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, "Experiment, Difference, and Writing: I. Tracing Protein Synthesis," Stud. Hist. Philos. Sci., 23 (1992), 305-331; Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, "Experimental Systems: Historalty, Narration, and Deconstruction," Sci. Context, 7 (1994), 65-81. As Bachelard put it in the context of chemical elements, the attributes of a substance are best termed "reactivities" insofar as they are hardly inert. However, even though these attributes are technical productions - phénoménotechnique - they do not occur as mere happenstance but are subject to an experimental order. Gaston Bachelard, Le matérialisme rationnel (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1953), pp. 196-197.
34. Throughout this article, we resort to the notion of experimental system as discussed by Rheinberger; see e.g., Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, "Experiment, Difference, and Writing: I. Tracing Protein Synthesis," Stud. Hist. Philos. Sci., 23 (1992), 305-331; Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, "Experimental Systems: Historalty, Narration, and Deconstruction," Sci. Context, 7 (1994), 65-81. As Bachelard put it in the context of chemical elements, the attributes of a substance are best termed "reactivities" insofar as they are hardly inert. However, even though these attributes are technical productions - phénoménotechnique - they do not occur as mere happenstance but are subject to an experimental order. Gaston Bachelard, Le matérialisme rationnel (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1953), pp. 196-197.
35. Throughout this article, we resort to the notion of experimental system as discussed by Rheinberger; see e.g., Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, "Experiment, Difference, and Writing: I. Tracing Protein Synthesis," Stud. Hist. Philos. Sci., 23 (1992), 305-331; Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, "Experimental Systems: Historalty, Narration, and Deconstruction," Sci. Context, 7 (1994), 65-81. As Bachelard put it in the context of chemical elements, the attributes of a substance are best termed "reactivities" insofar as they are hardly inert. However, even though these attributes are technical productions - phénoménotechnique - they do not occur as mere happenstance but are subject to an experimental order. Gaston Bachelard, Le matérialisme rationnel (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1953), pp. 196-197.
36. Chikao Morimoto, Norman L. Levin, and Stuart F. Schlossman, "The Development of Monoclonal Antibodies against Human Suppressor Inducer T Cell Subset" in Leucocyte Typing II, Vol. 1, ed. Ellis L. Reinherz, Barton F. Hayes, Lee M. Nadler, and Irwin D. Bernstein (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1984), pp. 79-88. In this paper the authors claim to have produced an antibody that "defines the subset of T4+ cells which is the inducer of T8+ suppressor cells" (p. 85).
37. Rachel Nowark, "Problems in Clinical Trials Go Far Beyond Misconduct," Science, 264 (1994), 1538-1541. Lawrence K. Altman, "AIDS Study Casts Doubt on Value of Hastened Drug Approval in U.S.," New York Times 6 April 1993, p. C3.
38. Rachel Nowark, "Problems in Clinical Trials Go Far Beyond Misconduct," Science, 264 (1994), 1538-1541. Lawrence K. Altman, "AIDS Study Casts Doubt on Value of Hastened Drug Approval in U.S.," New York Times 6 April 1993, p. C3.
39. Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio, "Interlaboratory Life: Regulating Flow Cytometry," in The Invisible Industrialist: Manufacturers and the Construction of Scientific Knowledge, ed., Jean-Paul Gaudillière, Ilana Löwy, and Dominique Pestre (London: Macmillan, 1997).
40. For an intriguingly different, yet complementary account of the suppressor cell controversy, see Scott H. Podolsky and Alfred I. Tauber, Darwinism and the Rise of Molecular Immunology (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, forthcoming).
41. Edward S. Golub and Douglas R. Green, Immunology: A Synthesis, 2nd ed. (Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer, 1991), pp. 506, 513.
42. Sercarz et al., "Central versus Peripheral" (above, n. 9). See also Golub and Green, Immunology, pp. 506-513.
43. Sercarz et al., "Central versus Peripheral" (above, n. 9). See also Golub and Green, Immunology, pp. 506-513.
44. Richard K. Gershon, "Suppressor T Cells: A Miniposition Paper Celebrating a New Decade", in Immunology 80. Progress in Immunology IV, ed. M. Fougeraux and Jean Dausset (London: Academic Press, 1980), pp. 375-388.
45. Möller, "Do Suppressor" (above, n. 9), p. 249.
46. K. Eichmann, "Suppression Needs a New Hypothesis: An Answer to Göran Möller," Scand. J. Immunol., 28 (1988), 273-276.
47. Golub and Green, Immunology (above, n. 24), p. 508. Question attributed to Lee Herzenberg.
48. At the time, the questions of interest concerned the site of the induction of tolerance: at a "central level" or at an antibody level entailing some kind of "immune paralysis." Sercarz et al., "Central versus Peripheral" (above, n. 9).
49. The problem could also be said to begin with Richard Gershon's experiments at the start of the 1970s. The locus classicus is R. K. Gershon, "T Cell Control of Antibody Production," in Contemporary Topics in Immunology, Vol. 3, ed. M. D. Cooper and N. L. Warner (New York: Plenum Press, 1974), p. 1.
50. Sercarz et al., "Central versus Peripheral" (above n. 9), p. 13. Although scientists often use model and experimental system interchangeably, sometimes in the same sentence (e.g., "Although in some experimental systems nonspecific suppression makes a variable contribution, in most models, the suppression is specific." J. R. Batchelor, "Antiidiotypic Responses in the Suppression of Allograft-Rejection," Transplant Proc., 21 [1989], 57-58), we believe that there is a significant difference between the two. In particular, it seems to us that experimental systems are more than a collection of techniques and while they can function as models, they are not reducible to models. In the case at hand, for example, not all the experimental systems in which one might hope to find suppressor cells are necessarily models of suppression. Similarly, not all models of suppression are necessarily experimental systems. Some autoimmune diseases are considered models of suppression.
51. Sercarz et al., "Central versus Peripheral" (above n. 9), p. 13. Although scientists often use model and experimental system interchangeably, sometimes in the same sentence (e.g., "Although in some experimental systems nonspecific suppression makes a variable contribution, in most models, the suppression is specific." J. R. Batchelor, "Antiidiotypic Responses in the Suppression of Allograft-Rejection," Transplant Proc., 21 [1989], 57-58), we believe that there is a significant difference between the two. In particular, it seems to us that experimental systems are more than a collection of techniques and while they can function as models, they are not reducible to models. In the case at hand, for example, not all the experimental systems in which one might hope to find suppressor cells are necessarily models of suppression. Similarly, not all models of suppression are necessarily experimental systems. Some autoimmune diseases are considered models of suppression.
52. R. Bissonnette, H. G. Zheng, R. T. Kubo, R. Singh, and D. R. Green, "Regulator Activity - Relationship to the T-Cell Receptor by Serology and Antigen Find Specificity," J. Immunol., 146 (1991), 2898-2907.
53. Roitt, Essential Immunology (above, n. 1), p. 197. It should be noted that the same author admits that the notion of something like an active suppressor function was, when discovered, considered a surprise.
54. Interview with Michael Ratcliffe, McGill University, Montreal, 10 May 1995.
55. S. G. Li, T. H. M. Ottenhoff, P. Vandenelsen, F. Koning, L. Zhang, T. Mak, and R. R. P. Devries, "Human Suppressor T-Cell Clones Lack CD28," Eur. J. Immunol., 20 (1990), 1281-1288, on p. 1288.
56. P. Pereira, E.-L. Larsson-Sciard, A. Coutinho, an da. Bandeira, "Suppressor versus Cytolytic CD8+ T Lymphocytes: What Are the Artefacts?" Scand. J. Immunol., 27 (1988), 625-628.
57. The complete quote: "Admittedly, the interpretation of in vitro experimental data on T cell-mediated suppression in the human system through in vitro experiments is open to scepticism. Indeed the majority of in vitro experimental observations on the phenomenon of Ts cells, in general, has been viewed by many as experimental artefacts. From this point of view, the difficulty in establishing the specificity of Ts cells is understandable. Even when the experimental systems are tightly controlled, the question of specificity (Ag specific vs idiotype specific) remains a formidable issue." N. G. Chakraborty, D. R. Twardzik, M. Sivanandham, M. T. Ergin, K. E. Hellstrom, and R. Mukherji, "Cells that Suppress Cytotoxic Responses," J. Immunol., 145 (1990), 2359-2364, on p. 2362.
58. H. Pritchard-Briscoe and R. H. Loblay, "Suppression in an Adoptive Hapten-Carrier System," Res. Immunol., 140 (1989), 313-317, on p. 313.
59. Ibid., p. 316.
60. A. Lanzavecchia, "Is Suppression a Function of Class-II Restricted Cytotoxic T-Cells?" Immunol. Today, 10 (1989), 157-159.
61. For a detailed discussion of the constitution of the immune system, see Ann Marie Moulin, Le dernier langage de la médecine. Histoire de l'immunologie de Pasteur au Sida (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1991), esp. pp. 341-376 ("Le système immunitaire").
62. D. Naor, G. Essery, N. Tarcic, M. Kahan, and M. Feldmann, "Interactions Between Autologous T-Cell Clones," Cell. Immunol., 128 (1990), 490-502, on p. 501.
63. E. Sercarz and U. Krzych, "The Distinctive Specificity of Antigen-Specific T Cells," Immunol. Today, 12 (1991), 111-118, on p. 112.
64. It is perhaps worth pointing out that the classification of experimental systems is obviously a scientific problem, not a historical or sociological problem.
65. Golub and Green, Immunology (above, n. 24), p. 507.
66. See above, n. 19.
67. Y. Chen, M. Takata, P. K. Maiti, E. S. Rector, and A. H. Sehon, "Characterization, of Suppressor T-Cell Clones Derived from a Mouse Tolerized with Conjugates of Ovalbumin and Monomethoxypolyethelene Glycol," Cell. Immunol., 142 (1992), 16-27, on p. 25. One might ask the following questions: Do experimental systems produce evidence or are they evidence? Similarly, do experimental systems explain suppression or do they display suppression?
68. Interview with M. Ratcliffe (above, n. 35).
69. Golub and Green, Immunology (above, n. 24), p. 508 (emphasis added).
70. Danielle Macbeth, "Names, Natural Kind Terms and Rigid Designation," Phil. Stud., 79 (1995), 259-281.
71. See Georges Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological (New York: Zone Books, 1989), esp. pp. 237-256 ("From the Social to the Vital"), for a discussion of the complex interactions between biological and social norms.
72. Golub and Green, Immunology (above n. 24), p. 507.