Because our previous in vitro studies of hapten-modified Ia+ keratinocytes (KC) indicated that these cells induced anergy in Ag-specific Th1 cells, we assayed such cells for their ability to induce unresponsiveness in an in vivo animal model system of delayed type hypersensitivity (allergic contact dermatitis). Naive animals that were treated with i.p. injections of FITC-modified Ia+ cultured Langerhans cells (cLC) developed allergic contact dermatitis to subsequent hapten challenge; whereas, animals treated with similar doses of FITC-Ia+ KC failed to become sensitized to epicutaneous application of FITC, as evidenced by absent ear swelling responses to a FITC challenge. Those animals that were first treated with intraperitoneal injections of hapten modified Ia+ KC could not be sensitized when they were subsequently exposed to sensitizing doses of FITC; whereas a similar first exposure to FITC-cultured Langerhans cells did not interfere with epicutaneous sensitization. This hyporesponsiveness to sensitization was hapten specific, as FITC-Ia+ KC-treated animals were hyporesponsive only to FITC but not to the irrelevant hapten, TNCB. Additionally, Ia- KC failed to induce unresponsiveness. Additional studies indicate that the hyporesponsiveness was not passively transferrable with splenocytes and was not related to the I-J MHC locus. In contrast to our in vitro studies, the unresponsiveness induced by hapten-modified Ia+ KC in vivo was transient in nature. These data indicate that hapten-modified Ia+ KC function in vivo as nonstimulatory accessory cells, by generating down-regulatory signals that can interfere with the induction of contact hypersensitivity.