The morphology of immune reactions in normal, thymectomized and reconstituted mice. 3. Response to bacterial antigens: salmonellar flagellar antigen and pneumococcal plysaccharide.

Abstract

The response to two bacterial antigens has been studied in the lymph nodes draining their site of injection in normal mice, and in thymectomized, irradiated bone-marrow injected mice with and without a reconstituting thymus graft. A chromosome marker was used to differentiate between the response of cells derived from the bone-marrow and the thymus graft. Cells of thymic origin were stimulated to mitosis only to a slight extent by salmonellar flagella and not at all by pneumococcal polysaccharide. Histopathological changes in the regional lymph nodes were small compared with those previously studied (to sheep red blood cells and to oxazolone). Animals deficient in thymus cells were incapable of sustained antibody production after injection of salmonellar flagella but they were able to produce nearly normal amounts of circulating antibody against pneumococcal polysaccharide.