Interaction between Cells of Peyer's Patches and Cells of Bone Marrow Origin in the Immune Response

Abstract

Abstract There has been a good deal of interest in Peyer's patches as a part of the gut-associated lymphoid system, but their actual function has not been defined. Much of the early work on Peyer's patches was concerned with defining their role as the mammalian equivalent of the bursa of Fabricius, populated primarily by thymus-independent, bursal equivalent (B)3 lymphocytes (1–5). More recently, however, several studies have provided evidence that Peyer's patches also contain functional T lymphocytes (6–11). We reported previously that although Peyer's patches of mice do not respond to systemic antigenic stimulation by producing antibody in situ. Peyer's patch cells could act synergistically with spleen cells to produce a 5-fold increase in the number of antibody-forming cells to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) (12). In this communication we report that Peyer's patch cells are able to cooperate with bone marrow cells to produce antibody-forming cells of IgM, IgG, and IgA classes.