A CYCLICAL APPEARANCE OF ANTIBODY-PRODUCING CELLS AFTER A SINGLE INJECTION OF SERUM PROTEIN ANTIGEN

Abstract

After a single intravenous injection of rabbits with aggregated HuIgG, IgM- and IgG-plaque-forming cells (PFC) in both the spleens and peripheral blood of rabbits peaked 5, 13, and 21 days after injection, while almost no PFC could be detected on days 8 and 16. The available data suggest that the secondary peaks of PFC (days 13 and 21) resulted from stimulation of memory cells by persisting antigen that was localized in the germinal centers in the spleen. No such persistence of antigen occurred in the lymph nodes, and these lymphoid tissues did not exhibit secondary peaks of PFC.