It has recently been established that FcRs are involved in the triggering of type II and III inflammatory responses. Although FcR is not believed to be involved in the regulation of T cell function, the in vivo contribution of FcRs to T cell function still remains unclear. We analyzed in vivo responses of delayed-type hypersensitivity and proliferation of CD4+ T cells to Ags in FcRgamma-/- mice lacking the expression and function of FcgammaRI, FcgammaRIII, and FcepsilonRI. We found that the delayed-type hypersensitivity response in FcRgamma-/- mice is significantly decreased compared with that in wild-type mice. Moreover, the secondary responses of proliferation and cytokine production as well as the Ab formation by CD4+ T cells from FcRgamma-/- mice to Ag and normal APCs were also reduced. In contrast, in vitro primary T cell proliferative responses upon stimulation with anti-TCR Ab or MLR as well as in vivo primary response against staphylococcus enterotoxin B administration were not different between T cells from FcRgamma-/- and wild-type mice. In addition, the Ag presentation function of APCs from unimmunized FcRgamma-/- mice was normal. On the other hand, Ab-deficient mice also revealed impaired T cell responses. These results demonstrate that the defective T cell responses in FcRgamma-/- mice were due to impaired Ag presentation during in vivo priming not to a defect in T cells. Therefore, they suggest that the FcRs on APCs mediate efficient priming of Th cell responses in vivo in an immune complex-dependent manner.