title: Intracellular distribution of antibodies in rat lymph node cells during primary response. A kinetic study.
abstract: The kinetics of appearance of immunoglobulin- and antibody-containing cells in rat lymph nodes was studied by immunoenzymatic techniques between days 12 and 90 after a single injection of horse-radish peroxidase. Three distinct phases appeared during the primary repsonse. Between days 8 and 17, essentially no antibody-containing cells were detectable, while non-specific immunoglobulin-containing cells amounted to up to 9% of the total cell population. The peak of antibody-forming cells was observed between days 18 and 24, and their number decreased slowly during the last phase. Days 18-20 were marked by a sharp peak of a distinct category of cells containing antibodies in a limited area of their cytoplasm. One day before this event, the percentage of immunoglobulin-forming cells decreased drastically, and remained very low throughout the response. These results are discussed on the basis of a previously published model, which proposes that non-specific immunoglobulin-containing cells are precursors to antibody-containing cells, and that the transformation between these two categories of cells involves a stage where antibody synthesis is restricted to a few endoplasmic reticulum vesicles.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D000921:Antibody-Producing Cells / Q000145:classification; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D007700:Kinetics; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D007136:Immunoglobulins