Immunological tolerance was induced in adult mice by the injection of 5 mg of deaggregated hapten-protein conjugate. The tolerant state was confirmed 4-19 days later by the failure of such animals to mount an immune response against an aggregated form of the same thymus-dependent hapten-protein conjugate as well as by the inability of spleen cells from tolerant animals to respond to a thymus-independent hapten-carrier conjugate. Even though the animals were fully tolerant, their spleen cells were activated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in vitro to produce normal numbers of plaque-forming cells against the hapten. The finding that spleen cells from tolerant animals could be activated by LPS into synthesis of antibodies against the tolerogen indicates that tolerance to thymus-dependent antigens does not affect B cells, but presumably only T cells. It is suggested that the only stringent test for the existence of B-cell tolerance is the inability of polyclonal B-cell activators to activate antibody synthesis against the tolerogen. The findings make it unlikely that B-cell tolerance to autologous thymus-dependent antigens exists and further indicate that such antigens cannot deliver activating or tolerogenic signals to B cells, although they are competent to combine with and block the Ig receptors.
Article|
June 01 1976
Spleen cells from animals tolerant to a thymus-dependent antigen can be activated by lipopolysaccharide to synthesize antibodies against the tolerogen.
G Möller
E Gronowicz
U Persson
A Coutinho
E Möller
L Hammarström
E Smith
Online ISSN: 1540-9538
Print ISSN: 0022-1007
J Exp Med (1976) 143 (6): 1429–1438.
Citation
G Möller, E Gronowicz, U Persson, A Coutinho, E Möller, L Hammarström, E Smith; Spleen cells from animals tolerant to a thymus-dependent antigen can be activated by lipopolysaccharide to synthesize antibodies against the tolerogen.. J Exp Med 1 June 1976; 143 (6): 1429–1438. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.143.6.1429
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