細胞免疫とその伝達因子

Abstract

When the mice were immunized with live vaccine of Salmonella enteritidis or survived the infection with virulent strain of S. enteritidis by the aid of antibiotics, mice acquired high antilethal resistance against further infection with 1, 000 MLD of a virulent strain 116-54 of the same organism. In contrast, killed vaccines increased the survival time of mice after challenge but were largely ineffective in preventing ultimate death from the infection.The mononuclear phagocytes, obtained from the abdominal cavity, subcutaneous tissue, or liver of mice immunized with live vaccine, inhibited the intracellular multiplication of bacteria and resisted cell degeneration caused by engulfment of bacteria, without the presence of immune sera in cell culture medium, but the mononuclear phagocytes obtained from the mice immunized with killed vaccines did not. This resistance of immune mononuclear phagocytes is referred to as cell immunity.The cell-bound antibody is detectable in the mononuclear phagocytes of immunized mice and inhibited the growth of a virulent strain 116-54 with the aid of complement and lysozyme, either on the nutrient agar plate or in the non-immunized mononuclear phagocytes. This antibody is extracted from the immune mononuclear phagocytes or the spleen of immunized mice and is found to be macroglobulin.The cell immunity is transferred from immune mononuclear phagocytes to nonimmune cells through the transfer agent (TA) of cell immunity. The TA is of RNA nature and detectable in the cell culture fluid or microsomal (or ribosomal) fraction of immune mononuclear phagocytes. When the normal mononuclear phagocytes were treated with TA, the cells acquired cell resistance against infection and inhibited intracellular multiplication of bacteria. Also, the cell-bound antibody was formed in the cells treated with TA. These facts strongly suggest that TA is a messenger of antibody formation or a carrier of antigenic information.According to the results described above, the author has presented the new cell line for the antibody formation, i. e., the role of mononuclear phagocytes in antibody formation and of the formrtion of TA after taking in of antigen, beside the plasma cellular and lymphoreticular cell lines for the antibody formation.