The Immunogenic and Co-operative Effects of Lymphocyte Nuclear Material from Antigen-Primed Mice.

When nuclei from the lymphocytes of mice immunized with rabbit erythrocytes are injected into unprimed animals the number of cells forming antibody to rabbit erythrocytes increases to a level approaching that of the immunized donor animals. The specificity of the response induced by nuclei is equally as good as that induced by native antigen. When ‘T’ and ‘B’ mice are immunized with rabbit erythrocytes a poor response is observed but when the nuclei from primed ‘T’ animals are used to immunize ‘B’ mice the number of antibody-producing cells is very much increased. In view of current theories about cellular co-operation it is pointed out that this co-operative effect of ‘T’ lymphocyte nuclei is independent of both cell membrane and additional antigen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]