STUDIES ON ANTIBODY PRODUCTION

Abstract

Re-crystallized horse ferritin was injected into the hind feet of rabbits which had been previously injected with apoferritin. This stimulus served to elicit a secondary antibody response against ferritin in the popliteal lymph nodes draining the feet. Ferritin could be localized in thin sections of such lymph nodes by fluorescent anti-ferritin antibody, and by electron microscopy. Specific antibody against ferritin could also be localized by immunofluorescence. The results indicated that ferritin molecules could be found in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus of reticular cells, plasmoblasts and immature and mature plasmocytes in lymph nodes known by immunofluorescence to be the site of a brisk secondary antibody response. It could not be proved that the ferritin was present in the same cells which were making antibody, because immunofluorescence and electron microscopy could not be carried out on the same block of tissue. However, the numbers of cells present made it likely that such was the case.