title: Long-lived B cells: mitogen reactivity as a tool for studying their life-spans.
abstract: A population of noncycling small lymphocytes has been selectively enriched in mice by treatment with hydroxyurea (HU) over 4 consecutive days. This cell population, present in the spleen of HU-treated mice, contained a high frequency of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-reactive cells and this could be used as a functional marker to follow their persistence after transfer to LPS-nonresponder recipient mice. The results reported here show that cells selected after a long-term HU treatment have considerably less decay, after transfer in recipient mice, than normal spleen cells. Furthermore, they demonstrate that HU-selected B cells survive in the recipient mice for periods up to 3 months, and are, consequently, true long-lived lymphocytes.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D006918:Hydroxyurea / Q000494:pharmacology; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344
chemical_list: D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D006918:Hydroxyurea