The TCR and CD8 complexes of CD8+ T cells bind to different regions of MHC class I molecules and both play important roles in the response of the CD8+ T cells to Ag/MHC on APCs. In this report, we mimicked common MHC binding with an anti-CD3:anti-CD8 (CD3,8) BSMAB to isolate the effect of CD3: CD8 pairing, compared this with the effect of CD3: CD3 pairing by the parental bivalent anti-CD3 MAB, and with monovalent anti-CD3 binding by an anti-CD3: anti-CD4 (CD3,4) BSMAB. CD3: CD8 pairing induced an increase in cytosolic free [Ca2+] 1.5 to 3.0-fold greater than the increase induced by CD3: CD3 pairing whereas monovalent CD3 binding induced only 20%-30% of the increase. Postbinding receptor migration studies suggested that microaggregation increased from monovalent CD3 binding to CD3: CD3 pairing to CD3: CD8 pairing. Further studies revealed that progressively higher concentrations of antibodies were needed from CD3,8 to CD3,3 to CD3,4 to initiate the same degree of DNA synthesis. These results demonstrated that Ti/CD3 and CD8 can indeed be bridged by a single molecule. A model of direct CD8: CD3 synergism was raised as a possible explanation for the enhanced activation induced by CD3: CD8 pairing. The observed parallel between all three parameters and the number of TCRs that can be directly linked by the Abs raised a nonmutually exclusive model whereby CD3 binding induces activated TCR intermediaries (aTCRi) that progressively synergize with other adjacent aTCRis. In this model, this dominant inter-aTCRi synergism may be enhanced by the di- and multimeric CD8 alpha chains serving as aTCRi-aggregation foci.