Abstract
Experiments were designed to determine whether or not precursors of antibody-producing cells are restricted in the number of antigens to which they can respond. An in vitro culture system was used, in which the successful production of hemolysin PFC was dependent on the presence of a large number of heavily irradiated spleen cells which did not themselves give rise to PFC, but which supported the production of PFC by a small number of normal spleen cells. All spleen cells were obtained from unimmunized CBA mice. The cells were mixed with either sheep or chicken erythrocytes, or both, cultured for 4 days and analyzed for hemolysin PFC. By reducing the number of unirradiated spleen cells to limiting dilution it was shown that normal spleen cell suspensions contain approximately three times as many precursors capable of responding to chicken erythrocytes as to sheep erythrocytes. In cultures containing both antigens, the number of precursors responding to one antigen was not affected by the presence of the other antigen. In addition, some cultures were positive for PFC-producing hemolysin against chicken erythrocytes, but not against sheep erythrocytes, and vice versa. This pattern of response was independent of the concentration of antigen in the cultures. Thus, the antigen-sensitive precursors for these non-cross-reacting antigens responded independently of each other, indicating that each precursor was restricted in its capacity to respond to more than one antigen prior to stimulation.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (608.8 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- ATTARDI G., COHN M., HORIBATA K., LENNOX E. S. Symposium on the biology of cells modified by viruses or antigens. II. On the analysis of antibody synthesis at the cellular level. Bacteriol Rev. 1959 Dec;23(4):213–223. doi: 10.1128/br.23.4.213-223.1959. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cebra J. J., Colberg J. E., Dray S. Rabbit lymphoid cells differentiated with respect to alpha-, gamma-, and mu- heavy polypeptide chains and to allotypic markers Aa1 and Aa2. J Exp Med. 1966 Mar 1;123(3):547–558. doi: 10.1084/jem.123.3.547. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Celada F., Wigzell H. Immune responses in spleen colonies. II. Clonal assortment of 19S- and 7S-producing cells in mice reacting against two antigens. Immunology. 1966 Nov;11(5):453–466. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dutton R. W., Mishell R. I. Cell populations and cell proliferation in the in vitro response of normal mouse spleen to heterologous erythrocytes. Analysis by the hot pulse technique. J Exp Med. 1967 Sep 1;126(3):443–454. doi: 10.1084/jem.126.3.443. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dvorak R. Contribution to the problem of clonation of lymphatic cells in vivo. Folia Microbiol (Praha) 1968;13(3):180–189. doi: 10.1007/BF02871032. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Green I., Vassalli P., Nussenzweig V., Benacerraf B. Specificity of the antibodies produced by single cells following immunization with antigens bearing two types of antigenic determinants. J Exp Med. 1967 Mar 1;125(3):511–526. doi: 10.1084/jem.125.3.511. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kennedy J. C., Till J. E., Siminovitch L., McCulloch E. A. The proliferative capacity of antigen-sensitive precursors of hemolytic plaque-forming cells. J Immunol. 1966 Jun;96(6):973–980. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Marbrook J. Primary immune response in cultures of spleen cells. Lancet. 1967 Dec 16;2(7529):1279–1281. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(67)90393-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Nakano M., Braun W. Fluctuation tests with antibody-forming spleen cell populations. Science. 1966 Jan 21;151(3708):338–340. doi: 10.1126/science.151.3708.338. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pernis B., Chiappino G., Kelus A. S., Gell P. G. Cellular localization of immunoglobulins with different allotypic specificities in rabbit lymphoid tissues. J Exp Med. 1965 Nov 1;122(5):853–876. doi: 10.1084/jem.122.5.853. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Playfair J. H., Papermaster B. W., Cole L. J. Focal antibody production by transferred spleen cells in irradiated mice. Science. 1965 Aug 27;149(3687):998–1000. doi: 10.1126/science.149.3687.998. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Puck T. T., Marcus P. I. A RAPID METHOD FOR VIABLE CELL TITRATION AND CLONE PRODUCTION WITH HELA CELLS IN TISSUE CULTURE: THE USE OF X-IRRADIATED CELLS TO SUPPLY CONDITIONING FACTORS. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1955 Jul 15;41(7):432–437. doi: 10.1073/pnas.41.7.432. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]