title: Elimination of allogeneic lymphocytes by mice.
abstract: Two major classes of response to allogeneic lymphocytes can be detected in mice in vivo, based on injecting them intravenously with 51Cr-labelled lymph node cells and examining them in a short term assay. A natural immunity discriminating between allogeneic and syngeneic lymphocytes is seen in the lymph nodes (and to a lesser extent, the spleen), which has such close similarities to natural cell-mediated responses of the NK class as thymic-independence and radioresistance. However, it has immunological specificity of a conventional kind, probably towards serologically determined K/D antigens. There is also an active immune response, produced by immunisation with dissociated lymphoid cells or allografting, which consists of three elements: an IgG opsonising alloantibody response, diverting circulating lymphocytes to the liver; an IgM opsonin, localising them to the spleen; and a cell-mediated serum-dependent elimination mechanism that destroys cells entering the lymph nodes and spleen. Dose-response curves for the primary response show evidence of high-dose paralysis of elimination. Dose-time-response results for the secondary show a variety of unique characteristics; evidence is presented to suggest that several aspects of the phenomenon betray primitive features retained from an earlier stage in the evolution of the immunological system.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D006084:Graft Rejection; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007114:Immunization; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000276:immunology; D017710:Lymphocyte Transfusion; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous