LYMPHOCYTE AND PLASMA CELLS 



level, no release of antibody into the circulation occurs 

 (Fischel, LeMay and Kabat, 1949; de Vries, 1950). There 

 is no question that ACTH or cortisone treatment of animals 

 and man results in involution of the thymus, a peripheral 

 lymphopenia, degeneration of lymphocytes in lymphoid 

 tissue and a diminution of their number in thoracic-duct 

 lymph. It seems possible that the positive results claimed for 

 antibody rise in association with damage to lymphoid tissue 

 may have been dependent on some adventitious factor, 

 perhaps equivalent to the endotoxin injection that Stevens 

 and McKenna (1957) found to be necessary to active spleen 

 cells to produce antibody in vitro. It is interesting that 

 Hammond and Novak (1950) could confirm Dougherty and 

 White's results using a complex antigen, sheep red cells, and 

 a crude adrenal-cortical extract. The possibility that poten- 

 tial antibody producer cells must be activated immuno- 

 logically before they could be expected to liberate antibody 

 under hormonal impact may need to be kept in mind. 



The presence of antibody in lymphocytes is not as easy to 

 demonstrate as it is for plasma cells. It is hardly adequate 

 to show that splenic or lymph-node cells contain more than 

 the fluid bathing them, since plasma cells are bound to be 

 present and may be wholly responsible. Investigators who 

 have studied thoracic-duct lymph are dealing with a cell 

 population approaching 99 % of lymphocytes, and with these 

 it has been difficult to demonstrate any preformed antibody, 

 even though the lymph contains a relatively high con- 

 centration of antibody. Craddock, Valentine and Lawrence 

 (1949) and Wesslen (1952), the first working with cats, the 

 second with rabbits, agree that extracts of the washed cells 

 obtained under these conditions contain no antibody. Wesslen, 

 however, observed that if the cells were maintained in Tyrode 

 solution they produced a moderate amount of antibody. 

 Coons, Leduc and Connolly (1955) found by fluorescent anti- 

 body ' sandwich ' technique that in lymph node in secondary 

 antigenic response most of the antibody was in plasma cells, 



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