Transfer Agent of Immunity

III. Autoantibody Formation by Mouse Spleen Cells Treated with Immune Ribonucleic Acid Preparation

Abstract

Antibody formation in vitro was studied using erythrocytes (RBC) as antigen and immunocytoadhesion as the technique for detection of antibody-forming cells. Spleen cells (SPC) of nonimmune mice gained the ability to produce antibody after treatment with ribonucleic acid (RNA) preparation extracted from allogeneic mice immunized with xenogeneic or allogeneic RBC. It was also found that a small proportion of SPC from individual mice of certain strains formed antibody against autologous RBC when the cells were treated in vitro with RNA preparation obtained from the spleen of an allogeneic mouse immunized with RBC of that individual. No converting ability was observed in the RNA preparation from spleen of nonimmune autologous or allogeneic mice. The converting activity of immune RNA preparation was shown to be sensitive to ribonuclease treatment. These evidences exclude the possible contribution of antigen or fragments thereof in the RNA preparation to the induction of antibody formation in RNA recipient cells.