Studies on the Transfer of Lymph Node Cells

Abstract

Summary Cells were teased from various lymph nodes and the spleens of rabbits which had been given injections of Shigella paradysenteriae into the hind foot pads. These cells were transferred to fresh rabbits, and thereafter agglutinins to the Shigella were measured in the sera of the latter. It was found that such agglutinins appeared regularly in the sera of the rabbits receiving cells of the popliteal lymph nodes, and only occasionally, to much lower titer, in recipients of splenic cells. If the same dose of antigen was injected intravenously into the donors it was found after cell-transfer that agglutinins to dysentery bacilli appeared regularly in the sera of recipients of splenic cells and occasionally, in much lower titer, in the recipients of cells of the popliteal lymph nodes. In neither case did agglutinins appear in the recipients of cells of the mesenteric lymph nodes of the donor animals. Repeated injections of Shigella paradysenteriae into the foot pads of donors resulted in regional lymph nodes which were larger and yielded more cells than that found after a single injection. Following the transfer of such cells the agglutinin titers of the recipients' sera were usually similar to, and occasionally lower than, those observed in the case of a single injection of antigen. When dysentery bacilli were injected into the hind foot pads of rabbits together with 3 other antigens, antibodies to all 4 antigens were found in sera of the recipients of cells of the regional lymph nodes, and the titers of anti-Shigella agglutinins in these animals were similar to those found in the recipients of cells from lymph nodes draining the site of injection of dysentery bacilli alone. The effects of administration of cortisone were also studied in this system. Such treatment of donor rabbits resulted in lymph nodes which were smaller and yielded approximately one-sixth the number of cells of control donors, but the cells so derived were usually as effective, or, in some cases, slightly less so, than in the case of non-hormone treated controls. Popliteal lymph node cells derived from normal donors 4 days after their injection with dysentery organisms were as effective in cortisone-treated recipients as in control animals. However, when the cells were obtained 2 days after the injection of the donors with antigen, and transferred to cortisone treated recipients and to controls, the agglutinin titers of the former were in some instances lower than those of the non-hormone treated animals.