Permissiveness of athymic (“nude”) mice towards congenic memory cells

Abstract

Spleen cells from BALB/c or BALB-Igb mice immunized against the determinant oligo-D-alanine were transferred to the following recipients: normal BALB/c; lethally irradiated BALB/c; and congenitally athymic BALB/c-nu. Irradiated as well as nude recipients permitted the development of a strong adoptive antibody response, while the response in normal BALB/c recipients was very low ("isogeneic barrier"). Using allotypically marked spleen cells from BALB-Igb donors it was shown that the antibodies in irradiated as well as in nude recipients were produced by donor cells. The same conclusion was drawn by assessing isoelectric focusing spectra, which in each transfer displayed the individually characteristic pattern of the donor. In addition to specific antibodies, the donor cells produced considerable levels of IgG, as characterized by allotype, but again only in nude and in irradiated recipients. The ready permissiveness of nude recipients towards congenic memory cells could be abolished when prospective recipients were restored, some time prior to transfer, by BALB/c thymus or BALB/c spleen cells. The results are interpreted to suggest that the isogeneic barrier in normal recipients is due to a thymus-dependent suppression or rejection of memory cells by the recipients.

Nude mice are nonpermissive towards the anti‐dextran response of congenic cells

“…In contrast, both irradiated (600 rds) CB 23 euthymic animals and nonirradiated CB nudes permitted the expression of donor Ig, as measured by allotype concentration (Fig. lA), in agreement with previous findings [13]. Thus it is even more striking that in CB nude mice the primary anti-Dex response is significantly reduced in comparison to that in irradiated CB 23 hosts ( Fig.…”

B cell dependence of the congeneic barrier towards idiotype‐carrying cells

“…It has been suggested that the "isogeneic barrier" in nonirradiated animals towards thymus-dependent memory cells is due to a thymusdependent suppression or rejection [24]. But since it has been shown recently [lo, 251 that also nude mice can be nonpermissive towards congeneic immune cells, it is of interest that nonpermissiveness of untreated recipients towards Id-carrying lymphocytes is dependent on the functional stage of B cells (Figs.…”

Network Regulation among T Cells: Qualitative and Quantitative Studies on Suppression in the Non‐Immune State

“…Thus, immunity appears to be an unstable deviation from the normal state and, after elimination of the antigen, the temporarily de-repressed cells are soon re-integratcd into the stable state. Precedents for these experimental observations have been made by others in the form of a phenomenon termed the "syngeneic barrier", i.e., the non-responsiveness of immune cells when injected into a non-irradiated syngeneic recipient mouse (Celada 1966, Kobow & Weiler 1975.…”