Frequencies of specific antibody-producing cells for sheep red blood cells and for phosphorylcholine in human tonsillar b lymphocytes transformed by Epstein-Barr virus.

Abstract

The frequencies of transformed B cells and of transformed specific antibody-producing cells in human tonsillar lymphocytes infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) were determined by limiting dilution analyses. The latter was corrected by the former and the frequencies of specific antibody-producing cells in EBV-transformed B cell populations were obtained. The frequencies of specific B cells for sheep red blood cells were calculated to be 1 in 500-2000 EBV-transformed tonsillar B cells obtained 4 donors, while those of specific B cells for a hapten, phosphorylcholine, were 1 in 700-5000. The method may be useful to define the repertoire of specificities in the human B cell populations.