1990 Volume 50 Issue 6 Pages 614-621
The stimulatory effect of soluble antigens extracted from Hymenolepis nana eggs (soluble egg antigens) on tritiated thymidine (3HTdR) incorporation by mesenteric lymph node cells (MLNC) was tested. Nonsensitized MLNC from uninfected BALB/c male mice showed slight increase of 3HTdR incorporation when crude soluble egg antigens were added to cell culture fluids. Sensitized MLNC prepared from mice inoculated orally with 1, 000 H. nana eggs 10 days before were more responsible for the enhanced incorporation of 3HTdR, particularly under stimulation with crude soluble egg antigens. Incorporation by sensitized MLNC in the presence of crude soluble egg antigens increased to approximatelly 360 % of the control value obtained from sensitized MLNC in the absence of the antigens. The stimulatory effect of crude soluble egg antigens on 3HTdR incorporation by sensitized MLNC pretreated with either anti-Thy-1.2 monoclonal antibody or anti-L3T4 monoclonal antibody was also tested. The results indicate that the values of incorporation by the pretreated MLNC were much smaller than those by non-pretreated MLNC. The values were as small as that of sensitized MLNC in the absence of the antigens. Since it became clear that crude soluble egg antigens blotted onto nitrocellulose (NC) filter sheets retained their stimulating ability on sensitized MLNC, the blotting procedure was employed to examine the molecular weights of antigens effective in the enhancement of 3HTdR incorporation by MLNC. Crude soluble egg antigens were separated by sodium dodecyle sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and transferred to NC filters which were then cut into identical discs (5 × 5 mm) . The results obtained by SDS-PAGE showed that crude soluble egg antigens contained components with molecular weights between 20, 100 and 340, 000. Sensitized MLNC showed a greater amount of 3HTdR incorporation when cultured in the presence of discs blotted with components having molecular weights ranging from 200, 000 to 250, 000.
