1987 Volume 36 Issue 4 Pages 205-212
To clarify the immune mechanisms of gold action, we studied the in vivo effect of gold on the immune response to TBM antigen and on the induction of interstitial nephritis (IN) in mice immunized with TBM antigen. BALB/c strain, which was a high responder in the immune response to TBM antigen and in the induction of IN, and low responder C57BL/6 strain were used. Typical IN with high titers of anti-TBM autoantibody was induced in low responder C57BL/6 mice after treatment with appropriate doses of gold and immunization with syngeneic TBM antigen in complete Freund's adjuvant. In contrast, the induction of IN and production of antibody in high responder BALB/c was depressed by gold treatment. Proliferative response of nylon wool non-adherent splenic cells to TBM antigen was suppressed by gold treatment in BALB/c, but was not in C57BL/6. An analysis of the proliferative response of non-adherent cells and adherent cells to TBM antigen showed that the T cell fraction of adherent cells had a suppressive activity against proliferative response of non-adherent cells to TBM antigen. When gold was not used, this suppressive activity was prominent in C57BL/6 mice and minimal in BALB/c mice. The strongly suppressive activity of adherent cells from C57BL/6 mice was remarkably decreased in vivo by treatment with gold. These results suggest that gold not only had an immunosuppressive effect but also an immunoenhancing effect, depending on the strain.
