Abstract
Blastogenesis of quail lymphocytes with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were examined by incorporation of H^^3-Thymidine as a parameter to evaluate lymphocyte functions. The optimal conditions of PHA-response were 5×106 spleen cells/ml, 1.0μl/ml PHA, 7.5% fetal bovine serum (FBS), and 48 to 72hr isotope labeling. In LPS-response, the conditions were essentially similar to PHA-response, except for 70μg/ml LPS and 0.5% FBS. Among the lymphoid cells, spleen cells were stimulated to proliferate by both PHA and LPS, while thymus cells by only PHA and bursal cells by none of these mitogens. Spleen cells from bursectomized quails responded to PHA similarly to those from sham-operated controls, while they completely lacking the response to LPS. To PHA a few thymectomized cases responded at relatively low level, whereas their response to LPS was normal. Immunofluorescence revealed immunoglobulin on the surface of LPS-induced blastoid cells but not of PHA-induced ones. These results suggest that T and B lymphocytes of quails respond to PHA and LPS, respectively, as observed were chicken lymphocytes and that mature lymphocytes are stimulated by mitogens at higher level than immature ones.
