核酸と形質細胞反應

抄録

In an attempt to determine whether depolymerized desoxyribonucleic acid, a product of decomposed lymphocyte nuclei, may produce plasmacellular response in lymph nodes or not, the following experiments were carried out: Different amounts of desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), i. e. 10mg and 2.5mg DNA dissolved in 1ml of physiological saline (pH was corrected by adding N/10-NaOH approximately to 7.0), were injected subcutaneously into the foot-pad of the right hind legs in a series of adult rabbits, and cellular response in the regional lymph nodes (popliteal nodes) was observed in sections. As control, 1ml of physiological saline was injected into the foot-pad of the left hind legs.
Following DNA injection, a marked infiltration of pseudoeosinophilic leucocytes occurred in both the sites of injection and the regional lymph nodes within several hours, and then disappeared gradually after 48 hours. The plasmacytes which are normally present in the medullary cords of the nodes, also increased in number to some extent, coincident with the infiltration of pseudoeosinophiles. But their increase was not significant as compared with the controls, because injection of physiological saline alone produced a similar increase of plasmacytes (Tables 1 and 2). The cellular response in the sites of injection was almost the same as observed in the regional lymph nodes.
It is concluded from these findings that depolymerized DNA, a product of decomposed lymphocyte nuclei, cannot be regarded as a primary factor to produce plasmacytic reaction in lymph nodes.