The suppression of transferred lymph node cells in adult and neonatal rabbits

Abstract

<h2>Summary</h2> The transfer of rabbit lymph node cells incubated in vitro with antigenic material derived from <i>Shigella paradysenteriae</i> to recipient rabbits leads to the appearance of agglutinins to Shigella in the sera of the recipient animals. The production of the antibody by the transferred cells is suppressed if the recipient rabbits have received a prior injection of leukocytes obtained from the donor animals. The suppression of antibody formation by transferred lymph node cells has also been demonstrated when the transferred cells have been incubated with serum obtained from rabbits which have been injected with rabbit leukocytes. This is presumably due to the effect of antibodies to leukocyte antigens within the heterogeneous population of rabbits. The transfer of lymph node cells to neonatal rabbits is also followed by the appearance of antibody in the sera of these animals. In the case of the neonatal recipients the suppression of transferred lymph node cells can also be actively induced by the prior injection of the donors' leukocytes; in the induction of this effect given numbers of rabbit leukocytes are almost as effective in the neonatal as in the adult recipient rabbit. The suppressive effect can also be conferred on recipient rabbits by injecting them with other rabbit lymph node cells—in this case cells of nodes draining sites of injection of rabbit leukocytes. Here, again, cells of neonatal rabbits injected with rabbit leukocytes are as effective as those of adult rabbits in the suppression of antibody formation by transferred lymph node cells. The sera of neonatal rabbits injected with rabbit leukocytes are, however, far less effective than are similar sera from adult rabbits in passively transferring the suppressive effect on transferred lymph node cells. Two possible bases for this difference are indicated.