Studies on Nucleic Acid Metabolism in Plasma Cells

Abstract

Summary.In order to study the endocellular formation of antibodies, plasma cells produced by injection of polyvalent pneumococcal vaccine or horse serum in rabbits, have been analysed with microspectrographical and microchemical methods. The successive examination of plasma cells after the injection showed that during the first stage of immunization the most frequently occuring type of plasma cell in cytochemical organization corresponds to the rapidly growing blood stemcell. During the latter stage of the immunization, with the constantly high titre level, a type of cell, identical with the mature plasma cell predominated. The transition from the rapidly growing cell to the mature cell is similar to the maturation of the blood‐cell, but with the difference that the ribose‐polynucleotide concentration in the cytoplasm remains unchanged. Together with the immunological data, this seems to indicate, that the formation of antibody protein proceeds essentially in a similar way as the protein synthesis in cells in general, namely in the presence of nucleic acids.