title: The role of genetic factors in the immunomodulating effect of thymosin.
abstract: The possible role of hypothetical genetic factors involved in the immunomodulating effect of thymosin fraction 7 (T7) was investigated. The model system was the in vitro immunization of murine spleen cell cultures with sheep red blood cells (SRBC), and the generation of antigen specific B cells in T7 treated cultures was compared to that of control values. It was found that T7 treatment enhanced the plaque forming cell (PFC) response of BALB/c spleen cells, while it proved to be suppressive in CBA cultures. Moreover, the T7 treatment of athymic BALB/c nude spleen cells resulted in a marked PFC response to SRBC, while a similar treatment of CBA nude cultures was ineffective in the same assay. The role of possible genetic factors was further confirmed using H-2 congenic and recombinant mouse strains on the C3H and B10 background. T7 elevated the PFC values in all B10 strains tested, and was suppressive in the case of C3H strains. It seems that the outcome of T7 treatment of murine target cells is determined by the genetic background and is independent of the H-2 haplotype.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation / Q000187:drug effects*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000276:immunology; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II; D006462:Hemolytic Plaque Technique; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains / Q000276:immunology; D008819:Mice, Nude / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D013947:Thymosin / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D013947:Thymosin