We isolated spirochetes from the blood of 2 of 36 patients in Long Island and Westchester County, New York, who had signs and symptoms suggestive of Lyme disease. The spirochetes were morphologically similar and serologically identical to organisms recently found to infect lxodes dammini ticks, which are endemic to the area and have been epidemiologically implicated as vectors of Lyme disease. In both patients, there was a rise in specific antispirochetal antibodies in paired specimens of serum. We conclude that the l. dammini spirochete has an etiologic role in Lyme disease.

Both thymus and bone marrow cells of adult mice can be made specifically unresponsive to human gamma globulin, but each cell population displays a distinct kinetic pattern for both the induction and spontaneous loss of the unresponsive state. These kinetics appear to be much slower in the bone marrow cells than in the thymus cells. In addition, the dose of deaggregated human gamma globulin needed to induce unresponsiveness in bone marrow cells is much greater than that needed to induce unresponsiveness in thymus cells. Apparently, unresponsiveness in only one cell type is sufficient for the tolerant state to be exhibited by the intact animal.

No abstract

No abstract