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Since the term 'lymphokine' first appeared in print over 20 years ago, a tremendous number of these soluble mediators of the immune system have been described. Within the past few years, many human nonspecific suppressive lymphokines have been identified. This review discusses the historical basis of immunologic suppression and suppressor factors. Later reports describing suppressive human lymphokines are then grouped into four categories: primarily stimulatory lymphokines that also mediate certain suppressive activities, suppressive lymphokines produced during altered states of immunity, suppressive lymphokines produced by exogenously stimulated lymphocytes, and suppressive lymphokines produced by unstimulated lymphocytes. Recent work I have been involved in focusing on the human suppressive lymphokine soluble suppressor factor (SSF) is also discussed