title: Cellular basis of an auto-anti-allotypic mechanism for the maintenance of chronic allotype suppression in the rabbit.
abstract: Immunocytochemical identification of antibody-forming cells (AFCs) in situ was used to test the hypothesis that the maintenance of chronic allotype suppression in heterozygous rabbits is the result of an autoimmune B-cell-mediated response. Appreciable numbers of B cells with antibody activity directed against the suppressed allotypic determinant were found in spleen and bone marrow sections of all chronically suppressed rabbits examined. Appropriate double-staining was used to determine that such cells were of the non-suppressed allotype. These cells were indistinguishable from anti-allotypic AFCs found in larger numbers in spleens of normal heterozygous rabbits that had been immunized against a heterologous allotypic determinant. Auto-anti-allotypic AFCs were not found in suppressed rabbits less than 8 week old, nor were they found in normal (non-suppressed) heterozygous rabbits or chimeric rabbits formed by the injection of histocompatible but allotype-mismatched lymphoid cells at birth. The findings reported here support the hypothesis that the long-term maintenance of allotype suppression in the rabbit may result from the suppressive activities of autoimmune B cells. It is suggested that the suppression of an allotype during the first few weeks of life could result in a loss of tolerance to a self-determinant. The kinetics of auto-anti-AFC production support this idea in showing that such cells are generated following the decline of the antibody used to induce suppression. The triggering event may be the emergence of B cells expressing the previously suppressed gene product.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.
authors.forename: L T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Adler
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Claassen
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology; D000818:Animals; D000921:Antibody-Producing Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007126:Immunoglobulin Allotypes / Q000276:immunology*; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D007126:Immunoglobulin Allotypes