Abstract
Our former report showed that palatine tonsil effectively incorporated exogenous foreign substances instilled at the surface of palatine tonsil. It is not clear whether antigen specific secretory IgA can be induced by the instillation. Sheep red blood cells (SRBC) were instilled at the palatine tonsil every three days as antigen and the appearance of specific secretory IgA in saliva was examined. In control experiment, nasal administration and intragastric one, which have been shown to induce secretory antibody in saliva, were done. Anti SRBC antibody in saliva from tonsillar instillation group was detected in the second week and the agglutination titer reached a maximum in the 6th week after the instillation. The titers in their maxima in tonsillar instillation group and nasal administration group were higher than that in intragastric administration group, 16 times (p<0.01, n=7) and 4 times (p<0.01, n=7), respectively. In tonsillar instillation group, the number of specific antibody producing cells per 10^5 lymphocytes was the highest in parotid glands among the lymphoid tissues as retropharyngeal lymph nodes, nasal mucosa, mesenteric lymph nodes, Peyer's patches, cervical lymph nodes, palatine tonsil and spleen. In nasal administration group, the number in nasal mucosa was the highest. The results showed that tonsillar instillation was the most effective administrating method to induce specific IgA in saliva among the three methods.
