FETAL LIVER CELLS: A SOURCE OF SPECIFIC IMMUNOGLOBULIN PRODUCTION IN RADIATION CHIMERAS,
Abstract
Adult-thymectomized and intact (C57L x A)F1 mice were X-irradiated (870 rad), and injected ip with 20-33 x 10 to the 6th power nucleated cells from livers of 14-21 day C57B1/6 x C57B1/6 embryos. In other experiments the mice received 300,000 syngeneic bone marrow cells (iv), and dissociated gut cells from 14-21 day C57B1/6 x C57B1/6 embryos (ip). The sera from these chimeras were assayed for the presence of donor-type gamma-globulins. These mice were also sensitized to a synthetic polypeptide (TGAL), and their sera tested for total and for donor-type anti-TGAL antibody. All the mice, thymectomized as well as intact, which received fetal liver cells, had significant quantities of donor-type gamma-globulins in their sera by 58 days postirradiation. Only 1 of 14 mice injected with embryonic gut cells was found to have donor-type gamma-globulins by 95 days postirradiation. Following immunization with TGAL, the fetal liver cell chimeras (intact thymus) exhibited specific antibody (10/10), while none of the thymectomized chimeras (0/21) were positive for this antibody. In the immunized, intact-thymus group, significant amounts of the specific anti-TGAL antibody was of donor origin. Thus, mouse fetal liver, as early as the 14th day of gestation, contains lymphoid stem cells capable of immunoglobulin synthesis in the absence of thymus. However, their ability to form certain specific antibodies is dependent upon intact thymic function. The results suggest that the donor-type immunoglobulins synthesized in the absence of the thymus may be 'nonsense' of 'defective' antibody-like molecules. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 24, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0650363
Entities
People
- L. A. Herzenberg
- Leonard J. Cole
- M. L. Tyan
Organizations
- Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory