Impairment of primary in vitro response of New Zealand mouse spleen cells to a thymic-dependent antigen

Abstract

New Zealand Black (NZB) and NZB by New Zealand White (NZW) F 1 hybrid ( B W ) mice develop clinical signs of autoimmune disease between 6 and 10 months of age but spleen cells from these strains have a greatly reduced in vitro response to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) as early as 5–6 weeks of age. This hyporesponsiveness can be only partially restored with 2-mercaptoethanol, allogeneic macrophages or spleen cells, or allogeneic factor. The response of NZB and B W spleen cells to the thymic independent antigen DNP-Ficoll is nearly normal. The reduced in vitro SRBC response was found to be attributable to splenic T and B cells rather than macrophages. Macrophages from NZB mice were found to function normally. The in vitro behavior of NZB lymphocytes is very similar to non-autoimmune mice infected with common murine viral pathogens. NZB and B W mice may be making an active immune response as early as 5 weeks of age.