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. 1989 Mar;66(3):404–409.

Quantification of antigen-specific antibody-secreting cells in the small intestine and other lymphoid organs of mice after oral booster immunization.

P J Van der Heijden 1, A T Bianchi 1, B A Bokhout 1, M Dol 1, J W Scholten 1, W Stok 1
PMCID: PMC1385228  PMID: 2467878

Abstract

The intestinal immune response of mice against ovalbumin (OVA) was quantified by isolating lymphoid cells from the small intestine (SI) and testing them for antigen-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) secretion. The isolation procedure for functionally active lymphoid cells from the SI, originally developed to quantify the number of 'background' Ig-secreting cells in the SI, proved to be a useful method for evaluating antigen-specific intestinal immune responses quantitatively. The method was able to detect antigen-specific antibody-secreting cells (ASC) in the SI even when these cells occurred at a minimum frequency of only 0.006%. When mice were primed intraperitoneally (i.p.) with polymerized OVA and given an oral OVA booster immunization, OVA-specific ASC appeared in the SI from Day 3 after booster. After i.p. priming and an i.p. booster these cells could not be detected in the SI. The OVA-specific IgA-ASC responses in various organs after oral booster immunization were compared. From Day 5 after booster, when the response peaked, most OVA-specific IgA-ASC occurred in the SI. This suggested that these cells are mainly responsible for the OVA-specific antibodies demonstrated by ELISA in intestinal secretions from Day 6 after oral booster immunization. It is concluded that the quantitative method used in this study detects antigen-specific ASC in the SI with great sensitivity and could be used to evaluate immunization regimes aimed at inducing intestinal mucosal immune responses.

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Selected References

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