Abstract
The effects of reticuloendothelial system (RES)-blockade on immune response and immunological memory formation were studied in mice. To examine the effects of carbon on memory formation, mice were first treated with carbon and then stimulated with 104-109 sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) one day later. The maximum secondary indirect plaque-forming cell (IPFC) responses to restimulation with 109 SRBC were obtained in control mice primed with 106 SRBC and in mice injected with carbon and primed with 105 SRBC. The effects of RES-blockade on memory formation were not prominent and only mice primed with 105 SRBC showed increased humoral immune responses in comparison with control mice. Both carbon-treated and control mice primed with 104 SRBC showed high secondary direct PFC and low IPFC response to 109 SRBC restimulation. In the case of mice primed with 109 SRBC 30 days before injection with carbon and restimulated with 105-109 SRBC one day later, the mice given the larger dose of booster antigen had larger PFC responses in spleen compared to mice injected with the smaller antigen dose but a difference in PFC response between carbon-treated mice and control mice was not observed.
It was suggested that RES-blockade increased memory formation in mice primed with a low antigen dose but did not affect the development of the secondary antibody response in mice primed with 109 SRBC.
