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Fetal Lymphoid Tissues: Antibody Production in Vitro¹

From the Dental Research Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514

Abstract

It is now thought that in the mature mammal, cell-mediated immune reactions are controlled by a bone marrow-derived, thymuspassaged cell(s) (1–3), while normal antibody production is dependent upon the interactions of macrophages, bone marrow-derived antibody-producing cells and a bone marrowderived, thymus-passaged cell whose specific function(s) is still to some degree in debate (4, 5). Although evidence has been presented that antibody production and specificity in response to "thymus-dependent" antigens results from the reactions between antigen, the antibody-producing cell, and thymus-passaged cells (6), other observations have suggested that limited antibody production and to a great degree the specificity of the antibody, are innately determined by the antibody-producing cells and their precursors (7). Lymphoid precursors, taken from mouse embryos as early as 3 days before the appearance of the thymic rudiment (i.e., on the 9th day of gestation), are able to produce immunoglobulins in thymectomized-irradiated hosts as well as they do in shamthymectomized controls (8); moreover, these cells are capable of a limited antibody response in the absence of the thymus when stimulated with sheep red blood cells (SRBC)² (7).

Footnotes

¹ This work was supported by Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-67-A-0321-0007, by United States Public Health Service Research Grants CA-13216 and DE-02668 from the National Institutes of Cancer and Dental Research, and by General Research Support Grant RR 5333 from the General Research Support Branch of the National Institutes of Health.

² Abbreviations used in this paper: SRBC, sheep red blood cells; S-MEM, supplemented minimal essential medium; DNP-BGG, DNP-bovine -globulin; cpm, counts per minute; PFC, plaqueforming cells.