A family of rat-mouse chimeric anti-murine CD4 antibodies was used to study the mechanisms of anti-CD4-mediated depletion and immunotherapy. The chimeric antibodies retain identical affinity and specificity as the therapeutically effective prototype antibody, rat GK1.5, but are of different mouse isotypes. GK1.5 gamma 1, GK1.5 gamma 2a, and GK1.5 gamma 2b are significantly more effective at CD4+ cell depletion than rat GK1.5 when low doses of antibody are administered. In contrast, no depletion is seen with GK1.5 gamma 3 at any dose. Depletion of CD4+ cells in vivo is not correlated with either the ability of the antibody to mediate C-dependent cytotoxicity or antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity in vitro, implying that additional antibody-mediated cytotoxic mechanisms occur in vivo. The chimeric antibodies were used to investigate the mechanism of GK1.5-mediated immunotherapy in a prototypic model of T cell-mediated autoimmunity, experimental allergic encephalomyelitis. Mice treated with a single dose of 100 micrograms of either GK1.5, GK1.5 gamma 1, or GK1.5 gamma 2a showed significant recovery within 72 h. In contrast, mice treated with 100 micrograms of GK1.5 gamma 3 showed only marginal improvement within the first 72 h and regressed within 5 days of treatment initiation. These data suggest that anti-CD4-mediated immunotherapy of murine experimental allergic encephalomyelitis is correlated with depletion of CD4+ cells.