Transfer to Neonatal Chickens of the Primary Antibody Response initiated in vitro

Abstract

THERE are numerous reports on the formation of antibody by neonatal animals which had been injected with homologous spleen and lymph node cells mixed in vitro with bacterial antigens^1–3. Transfer to neonatal recipients of a primary response to serum protein antigens under similar conditions has often met with failure or with poor antibody responses³. The latter has been attributed either to the unsuitability of the neonatal environment for the cells^4,5 or to the possibility that soluble proteins have a longer induction period, and as a consequence the homograft reaction results in damage of the cells before antibody is demonstrated⁶. To obviate this, Holub and Říha utilized diffusion chambers which protected the transferred adult cells from the rejection mechanism. The present report summarizes further attempts to initiate an antibody response by in vitro mixing of chicken spleen cells with either bovine serum albumin (BSA) or with BSA–anti-BSA complexes, and subsequent transfer to neonatal chickens.