Effect of combined injection of hydrocortisone and edta on the number of antibody-forming cells in the spleen of mice immunized with sheep's erythrocytes

Abstract

Experiments on (CBA x C57BL)F1 mice showed that injection of hydrocortisone into the animals in a dose of 1 mg per mouse 24 h after immunization with sheep's erythrocytes, and against the background of repeated injections of EDTA, leads to a reduction in the relative number of plaque-forming cells by more than two-thirds in the spleen of the mice compared with the effect of the two agents separately, and by more than five-sixths compared with the control. It is suggested that this may be the result of the more intensive incorporation of hydrocortisone associated with the prolonged hypocalcemic action of the complexone, EDTA.