Abstract
The influence of methylmercury chloride (me-Hg) on the immune response was studied in the mice injected with a single injection of sheep red cells.
Mice administered with various concentrations of me-Hg before or after antigen stimulation were sacrified to collect serum and spleen samples. Hemagglutination test (HA) and hemolytic reaction (HR) were carried out to find the antibody titers in serum, and the number of plaque forming cells (PFC) in spleen was also examined. The following results were obtained: 1) During the whole immunological course, mice administered with relative low concentrations of me-Hg (0.307mg/kgHg×5 or 3.07mg/kgHg×5) had almost the same HA tnd HR activities as control mice, but 2) some immunological influences were observed in the mice injected with relatively high concentrations of me-Hg (15.3mg/kgHg×1, ×2 or ×3). 3) In this case, administration of the me-Hg before antigen stimulation caused the decreased circulating antibody titers and the decrease in the number of PFC especially in the initial phase of immune response. However, administration of the me-Hg after antigen stimulation resulted in the increase of antibody titers as well as the number of PFC especially in the producing and the terminating stages of the immune response. 4) It was ascertained by gel filtration of mouse sera on Sephadex G-200 that only a small part of Hg combined with γ-globulin, and it was also proved that me-Hg had no potency to affect the antibody titers in Vitro. These results suggested that the influence of me-Hg on the immune response did not affect the serum antibody titers directly, but did affect the antibody forming cells in spleen. 5) Methylmercury was known to be a potent inhibitor of membrane adenylate cyclase. It was discussed that there was the possibility for me-Hg to affect the interaction between the antigen and B-cell, and/or B-cell and T-cell in spleen by way of cAMP.
