title: Autoimmunity and aging: the age-related response of mice of a long-lived strain to trinitrophenylated syngeneic mouse red blood cells.
abstract: Mice of 1.5, 9, 22, and 31 to 32 months of age were injected with the thymus-dependent antigen, TNP-SRC, or the thymus-independent antigen, TNP-SRC, TNP-MRC. The anti-SRC and TNP immune responses to TNP-SRC were markedly reduced in older mice, whereas the anti-TNP response to the TNP-MRC showed no substantial decline. Young mice produced higher anti-TNP plaque-forming cell responses after injection of TNP-SRC than after TNP-MRC, whereas in older mice the reverse obtained. Old mice but not young mice displayed a high anti-SRC cross-reactive response after injection of TNP-MRC. The avidity of anti-TNP antibody of young mice immunized with TNP-SRC was higher than that following immunization with TNP-MRC, whereas the avidities of anti-TNP antibodies from old mice injected with these two reagents were the same. Those individual mice which showed a poorly regulated immune response also displayed an autologous anti-MRC plaque-forming cell response after injection of either TNP-SRC or TNP-MRC. It is suggested that mechanisms mediated by suppressor T cells may be responsible for regulating the autoimmune response to modified self antigens, and that these are severely impaired in age individuals.
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D001323:Autoantibodies; D001963:Bromelains / Q000494:pharmacology; D004306:Dose-Response Relationship, Immunologic; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006462:Hemolytic Plaque Technique; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009578:Nitrobenzenes / Q000276:immunology*; D010527:Perissodactyla; D012756:Sheep / Q000276:immunology; D014301:Trinitrobenzenes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D009578:Nitrobenzenes; D014301:Trinitrobenzenes; D001963:Bromelains