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Induction of T- and B-Lymphocyte Responses in Antigenically Stimulated Athymic Mice¹

Departments of Chemistry [G. M. B., J. S. L., R. A. L., N. O. K.] and Pathology [S. M. B.], University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093

Antigenic stimulation of athymic mice on the BALB/c back-ground by infection with the pinworms Aspiculuris tetraptera and Syphacia obvelata or by xenografts of human tumors induced a proliferation of T- and B-lymphocytes in spleen and lymph nodes and occasional germinal center formation. The proliferating T-lymphocytes showed greater fluorescence per cell than the Thy 1-positive cells from unstimulated athymic mice when examined by cytofluorography using anti-Thy 1 antiserum. The proliferating T-lymphocytes were shown to be functional by their ability to help mount an in vivo antibody response to sheep erythrocytes and other thymus-dependent antigens. Spleen cell cultures taken from mice at early stages of antigenic stimulation responded in vitro to the thymus-dependent mitogens concanavalin A and phytohemagglutinin. However, spleen cell cultures taken from mice chronically stimulated by foreign antigens were apparently already maximally stimulated and showed no further stimulation when incubated with concanavalin A or phytohemagglutinin in vitro.

¹ Supported in part by USPHS National Cancer Institute Grant CA-23052 and CA-11683, American Cancer Society Grant BC-60, Research Service of the Veterans Administration Hospital, USPHS Grant GM-07198, and National Foundation Grant 8-79-37. This work was presented in part at the Third International Workshop on Nude Mice, Bozeman, Mont., September 6 to 9, 1979.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 11/17/80. Accepted 3/13/81.