Repeated exposure of Brown Norway rats to an aerosol of ovalbumin (OVA) induced a state of antigen-specific immunological tolerance, particularly in the IgE isotype. Tolerance was transferable to naive syngeneic animals by inoculation of splenic T cells from tolerant rats. Sequential depletion of tolerant spleen cells by sorting techniques prior to adoptive transfer, employing T-cell subset-specific monoclonal antibodies, indicated that the cells mediating tolerance were CD3+, CD4-, CD5+ and CD8+, but lacked alpha or beta chains in the T-cell receptor (TcR), suggesting that they may be part of the gamma/delta T-cell lineage. Consistent with this suggestion, the sorted population demonstrated considerable enrichment for TcR gamma chain-specific mRNA. As few as 2 x 10(3) cells are sufficient to adoptively transfer tolerance in 200-g adult rats in this model.