Cooperation between thymic-derived cells (T cells) and bone marrow-derived precursors of antibody-forming cells (B cells) is not thought to be required for an antibody response to Type III pneumococcal polysaccharide, or SSS-III 1 (1-3). Yet treatment with antilymphocyte or antithymocyte serum (ALS or ATS), which causes a depletion of T cells (4-10), produces a significant increase in the magnitude of both the plaque-forming cell (PFC) and the serum antibody response to this antigen (11)(12)(13)(14) and an increase in the serum antibody response to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (15) and polyvinylpyrolidone (16). With respect to the PFC response to SSS-III, such enhancement can be abrogated by the infusion of syngeneic thymocytes; however, the infusion of peripheral white blood cells, a population reported to contain 60-90% T cells (17,18), results in additional enhancement (12).On the basis of these findings, we hypothesized that two functionally distinct types of cells (suppressor and amplifier cells2), presumably both thymic-derived, act in an opposing manner to regulate the magnitude of the antibody response to SSS-III by B cells; the enhancement produced after treatment with either ALS or ATS is apparently due to the inactivation of cells that normally exert a negative, rather than a positive, influence on the magnitude of the antibody response elicited after immunization (12).
Immune responses of mast cell-deficient WBB6F1-W/Wv mice and their mast cell-sufficient littermates (LM: WBB6F1-W/+, WV/+ and +/+) were compared. After a single intravenous injection of sheep erythrocytes (SE), polyvinylpyrrolidone or bacterial lipopolysaccharide, the antigen-specific IgM plaque-forming cell (PFC) response of W/Wv mice was similar to or greater than the response of LM mice. When both primary and secondary injections of SE or chicken γ-globulin were given to mice and antigen-specific IgG PFC responses quantified, the response of W/Wv again was similar to or greater than that of LM mice. Serum titers of antigen-specific IgE were higher in W/Wv than in LM mice after injections of ovalbumin in alum or infections of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. Ovalbumin-sensitized W/Wv and LM mice developed active systemic anaphylaxis after ovalbumin challenge. The ability of W/Wv mice to be sensitized for and elicit contact sensitivity (CS) reactions was studied using picryl chloride or dinitrofluorobenzene as sensitizing and challenge agents and quantifying 24-hour reactions by change in ear thickness. SE or methylated bovine serum albumin was used to sensitize and challenge mice for delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions which were quantified at 24 h by change in foot pad or ear thickness. CS and DTH reactions of W/Wv and LM mice were similar. No evidence of immune deficiency of W/Wv mice was found.
Congenitally a t h y m i c (nude) mice h a v e been shown to accept skin allografts p e r m a n e n t l y (1-4). I t has been further established that these mice accept skin grafts from several other species of rodents and lagomorphs, including rats, hamsters, and rabbits (5, 6). W e have recently reported t h a t nude mice will m a i n t a i n for their lifetime full thickness grafts of normal h u m a n skin (7). This acceptance of h u m a n skin p r o m p t e d us to a t t e m p t xenografts of ever increasing phylogenetic disparity in order to determine w h e t h e r these athymic mice possess any ability w h a t s o e v e r to reject foreign skin. W e report here that nude mice m a i n t a i n indefinitely intact skin grafts not only from distantly related m a m m a l s (cat, human), but from birds (chicken) as well. T h e y also fail to reject skin grafts from reptiles (fence lizard and chameleon) and from amphibians (tree frog), although such grafts undergo certain morphological changes. Materials and MethodsMice.--Congenitally athymic mice, hereafter designated nude, were selected from a stock which has been backcrossed into the BALB/c strain. Nude mice and their phenotypically normal littermates were maintained on sterilized Purina 5010C feed (Ralston Purina Co., Inc., St. Louis, Mo.) and acidified-chlorinated water.Skin Grafling.--Skin grafting was performed on mice of both sexes between 5-7 wk of age.Human skin was obtained from the foreskins of circumcised infants; cat skin specimens were taken from the ear, paw, and facial regions. Chicken skin grafts were prepared primarily from the cervical apterium (featherless skin) and its borders. A select few chicken grafts were prepared from the capital pteryla (contour feather tract) to include a maximal number of feathers or follicles; the feathers were plucked or trimmed 2 days before sacrifice for grafting. Skin from the large-scaled lizards (fence lizards, genus Sceloporus) was taken from the throat or abdominal regions, whereas that from the small-scaled lizards (chameleon, genus Anolis) and tree frogs (genus Hyla) was taken from any area of the trunk. All donor skins were prepared by pinning the entire specimen on a flat surface and gently scraping away all subcutaneous fascia. Circular grafts 1 cm in diameter were then cut with a carefully sharpened, sterile cork borer.
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