The detrimental effects of specific vitamindeficiency states on the immune response have been known for some time (1). The pronounced impairment of the immune system has been well documented in both pyridoxine-and pantothenic acid-deficient rats (1). Defects in immune capacity in such deficient animals can be attributed neither to general inanition nor to impaired reticuloendothelial function in antigen distribution, but rather to decreased numbers of hemolytic antibody-producing cells as measured in plaque-forming cell assays (2) in rats responding to sheep erythrocytes (3,4).In an effort to extend these studies to animals injected with other antigens, and in order to approach questions regarding mechanisms of regulation of immune responses in general, and mechanisms of the immunological defects seen in vitamin-deficient rats in particular, studies were undertaken using targets in addition to sheep erythrocytes to evaluate the immune capacity of rats with specific vitamin deficiencies. In this report, we present results of the effects of riboflavin, pyridoxine, and pantothenic acid deficiencies upon background plaque-forming cells in nonimmunized rats.Materials and Methods. Male , weanling albino rats of the Holtzman strain (Holtzman Co., Madison, Wisc.) were housed individually in wide-meshed, screen-bottom, suspended cages. They were weighed weekly and experiments were initiated 6 to 14 weeks after arrival at the laboratory.Production of specific vitamin dejiciences. All animals were fed a basal, semipurified diet ad libitum (4). In addition, each animal * Present address: Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Magee-Womens Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.received a daily vitamin pill (4). Each of the pills fed to the control animals supplied adequate supplements of all of the B vitamins known to be required by the rat. For the riboflavin-, pyridoxine-, and pantothenic acid-deficien t groups, only the respective vitamin was omitted from the control pill.Assays for hemolytic plaque-forming cells. The following types of erythrocytes were used as targets in the direct hemolytic plaque-forming cell (PFC) assay (2): sheep red cells (SRC) from individual sheep were obtained in Alsever's solution from either Earl Cole, Green County, Pa.; Flow Laboratories , Rockville , Md. , or Sacks' Farm, Evans City, Pa.; human O+ erythrocytes were obtained in ACD solution from the Central Blood Bank, Pittsburgh, Pa.; pooled rat red cells in Alsever's solution were obtained by cardiac puncture of donor normal rats of the same Holtzman strain as used in experiments.Rats were sacrificed by a blow on the head and bled by cardiac puncture. Spleens and, sometimes thymuses, were removed aseptically, weighed, and dissociated by being pressed through a stainless steel wire mesh (2). Single cell suspensions were prepared (2); and aliquots of the resulting single cell suspensions containing lo6 to lo8 cells, depending on targets to be used, were subjected to hemolytic plaque assays (2) in 15 x 100-mm petri dishes. Prelim...
Peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) from 16 persons (6 Rh-sensitized pregnant women, 1 pregnant non-Rh-sensitized woman, 3 nonpregnant non-Rh-sensitized women, and 6 non-Rh-sensitized males) were assayed for plaque-forming cells (PFC) against several erythrocyte targets. 6 of 7 pregnant women had PFC, whereas only 1 of 6 males had PFC to autologous red cells. Antiautologous erythrocyte PFC in all of the pregnant Rh-sensitized women as well as the 1 nonpregnant multiparous woman may be the result of alloimmunization of mothers by their fetuses during gestation. Further studies in this area would be valuable in determining not only the immune status of a mother in relation to her fetus, but also would be of value in determining the consequences of that immune status on both mother and fetus. Such information would also provide a further clue to the etiology of autoimmune disease.
T-lymphocyte subpopulations were quantitated in lymph nodes that contained metastatic tumor--or no metastasis--from patients who had squamous cell carcinoma of the upper aerodigestive tract. In addition, the lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood were quantitated. The content of prostaglandin E2 within each node that was evaluated was also determined. Lymph nodes containing metastatic tumor had significantly higher helper/suppressor ratio than lymph nodes that were not involved. Quantification of the T-lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood did not indicate the presence of metastatic disease. Significantly more prostaglandin E2 was present in lymph nodes containing metastatic disease, in comparison to lymph nodes without metastatic disease. Thus, both the lymphocyte subpopulations and prostaglandin levels were found to differentiate lymph nodes with metastasis from those without.
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