Abstract
IMMUNOLOGICAL unresponsiveness (tolerance) in mice injected with soluble protein antigen during the perinatal period can be maintained if the animals are thymectomized1,2. Isakovic et al.3 investigated the formation of antibody and the delayed type reactivity of thymectomized and irradiated rats grafted with normal and tolerant adult rat thymus. They were able to show that the animals grafted with thymus from a donor tolerant to bovine gamma-globulin either did not respond or gave a significantly depressed response to this antigen for as long as 6 weeks after the implantation of thymus. The breakdown of tolerance has also been accelerated by irradiating animals which were not thymectomized; irradiation had no effect on thymectomized animals4. It is generally agreed that tolerance requires the persistence of antigen within the thymus. Indirect evidence of this is the presence of large numbers of donor cells in the thymus of mice with neonatally induced tolerance to homografts5. Mitchison recently detected antigen in the thymus of tolerant animals6 and the age factor has also indicated the importance of cell turnover for recovery from immunological paralysis.
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PIERPAOLI, W. Thymectomy and the Prolongation of Tolerance to Bovine Serum Albumin in Adult Rats. Nature 214, 802–803 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/214802a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/214802a0
