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Studies on the Maturation of Immune Responsiveness in the Mouse

II. Role of the Spleen^1,2,

From the Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

Abstract

Experiments were designed to investigate the role of the spleen in the development of the murine immune system. By using mice splenectomized within 24 hr of birth, as well as mice with a hereditary, congenital absence of the spleen, the primary immune response to sheep erythrocytes was examined. The immunocompetence of lymph node cells from spleenless or control mice was assessed in vitro, in organ and in cell suspension cultures, and in vivo, by transfer into lethally irradiated syngeneic recipients followed by antigenic stimulation. The immunologic capacities of thymus and bone marrow cells were similarly tested by injection separately or in combination into irradiated syngeneic mice. Lymph node cells from spleenless animals appeared fully competent both in vitro and in transfer experiments. Neither neonatal splenectomy nor congenital absence of the spleen significantly reduced the capacity of bone marrow or thymus cells to participate in the immune response to sheep erythrocytes.

Footnotes

¹ Portions of this work were presented at the Symposium on Phylogenic and Ontogenic Study of the Immune Response held by the Societé Francaise d'Immunologie, Paris, 1972 (cf. Chakravarty et al., reference 14).

² This work was supported by Grants BMS 74-12092 (formerly GB 36767) from the National Science Foundation and CA 13548 from the National Cancer Institute.

³ Present address: Immunobiology Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

⁴ Present address: Department of Biology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.