An Investigation into the Use of 6-Mercaptopurine to Induce Immunological Tolerance

Abstract

Experiments to repeat 6-mercaptopurine induced immunological tolerance are reported. 6-Mercaptopurine definitely suppresses antibody formation in the primary response with a dose of 6 mg/kg a day for 14 days from the day of antigen injection in most of the animals studied. With pure antigens, it was not possible to produce immunological tolerance in rabbits pretreated with 6-MP in the experimental procedure indicated above. Three animals showed immunological unresponsiveness or poor response to the second dose of antigen and to the first dose of another antigen. These animals were considered to be poor producers of circulating antibody.