Regional blood flow and its relationship to lymphocyte and lymphoblast traffic during a primary immune reaction.

Abstract

The relationship of alterations in blood flow with changes in cell distribution was studied in an inflammatory site and its draining lymph node during the induction of an immune reaction with oxazolone in mice. The cells which moved to the site of inflammation were predominantly lymphoblasts and their increased localization in the inflamed ear was significantly correlated with increased regional blood flow to the inflamed tissue. The existence of this correlation was not antigen dependent although there was a relative increment of lymphoblasts which were specifically primed to the inflammatory agent. The localization of nonblastic (small) 51Cr-labeled lymphocytes was substantial only in lymphoid tissue and during the induction of an immune reaction after oxazolone application, the increase in localization of these cells in the draining lymph node was positively correlated with increased blood flow to the node. The probability of finding 51Cr-labeled lymphocytes in a particular lymph node is related to the regional blood flow which that node receives.