Peripheral blood CD8+/CD57+ T cells display poor proliferative responses when stimulated with CD3 or CD2 in vitro, but can be induced to proliferate in the presence of exogenous IL-2. Although GT2+T11(1), a mitogenic anti-CD2 mAb pair, could synergize with IL-2 to induce sustained cell divisions in this population (as did immobilized OKT3), D66+T11(1), another anti-CD2 mAb pair, could only induce a small abortive proliferative response. All these antibodies were in contrast strongly mitogenic for CD8+/CD57- T cells. Assuming that D66+T11(1) were exerting inhibitory effects on CD8+/CD57+ T cells, we indeed found that such antibodies profoundly suppressed the anti-CD3 and IL-2-induced proliferation of those cells, but not that of CD8+/CD57- cells. CD2-mediated growth arrest was correlated with rapid cell death occurring within 2 h, once the cells had been submitted to D66+T11(1), and cells susceptible to the death signal were large cells committed in the cell cycle. D66+T11(1)-treated cells had the well-known ultrastructural form of apoptosis, and the DNA extracted from these cells showed the typical ladder pattern of DNA fragmentation accompanying this process. For apoptosis to occur, two anti-CD2 mAb had to be applied to the cells, one of them being D66, suggesting that the corresponding anti-CD2 mAb pairs were imposing on the CD2 molecule a particular conformational change appropriate to transduce a death signal. Notably, CD8+/CD57- T cells were largely resistant to apoptosis in the conditions just described. When exposed to anti-CD3 and IL-2 in primary and secondary cultures, CD8+/CD57+ T cells retained high viability, whereas in contrast, when exposed to D66+T11(1), important cell loss occurred, concomitant with apoptosis, illustrating the specificity of the CD2-derived death signal. Our results suggest that the expansion of CD8+/CD57+ T cells is critically dependent on the CD2 pathway which, according to the conformational change of the CD2 molecule and the activation state of the cells, will direct them either towards proliferation or towards cell death.