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. 1972 Sep;23(3):335–342.

Degeneracy of the immune response to sheep red cells

Thymic dependency

R K Gershon, K Kondo
PMCID: PMC1407933  PMID: 4547738

Abstract

In the previous paper we showed that the immune response to sheep red cells (SRBC) was degenerate; serum antibodies showed increasing loss of specificity, signalled by cross-reactions with horse RBC (HRBC), with time after immunization and with hyperimmunization. In the present report we have analysed the role T cells may play in this process.

To do this we studied the antibodies made by mice deprived of T cells by irradiation as well as those made by normal mice immunized with SRBC in distilled water, which was shown to depress the DNA synthetic response of T cells. In both instances the mice with fewer responding T cells made less antibody which could agglutinate HRBC than did the appropriate controls. This was true even when no difference in anti-SRBC titre was apparent. In addition we showed that the antibody made by mice with reduced numbers of T cells was less effective at passive suppression of the immune response to SRBC than was similarly titred (against SRBC) antibody made by normal mice.

Thus, certain sub-populations of antibodies, normally made in response to SRBC immunization, are particularly thymus dependent. We have discussed why we think they are those of particularly high affinity.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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