Role of the thymus in natural tolerance to an autologous protein antigen.
C5-deficient mice grafted with thymus from C5-sufficient donors and immunized with C5 failed to make humoral antibody to C5, suggesting that the transfer of thymus had induced tolerance. Irradiated C5-deficient hosts repopulated with lymphoid cells from thymectomized C5-deficient mice grafted with C5-sufficient thymus also failed to respond to immunization with C5, thus showing that the state of tolerance can be adoptively transferred. These results demonstrate that natural tolerance to self-protein antigen is "learned" in the thymus.
Boguniewicz
M
M
Division of Immunology, Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
Sunshine
G H
GH
Borel
Y
Y
D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D003182:Complement C5 / Q000276:immunology*; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007116:Immunization, Passive; D051379:Mice; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology*
D003182:Complement C5