抄録
Suppression of the cellular and humoral immune capacities of Japanese quails was attempted by surgical thymectomy on the 7th day of hatch and surgical bursectomy on the day of hatch. Degree of immunosuppression on cellular immune response was evaluated by graft-versus-host reaction and skin graft rejection, and that on humoral immune response was evaluated by antibody production to sheep red blood cells and virus antigen. In thymectomized quails significant suppressionn of cellular immunity was demonstrated, whereas humoral immune capacity remained almost normal. In bursectomized quails, significant suppression of humoral antibody response was observed without any detectable suppression of cellular immune response. When the quails immunosuppressed either by thymectomy or bursectomy were inoculated with the Schmidt-Ruppin strain of Rous sarcoma virus, regression of primary tumors and induction of resistance to challenge with the same virus were significantly inhibited in thymectomized quails, but not in bursectomized ones. From the results, cell-mediated immune response was suggested to play a major role in the course of autochthonous virus-induced tumors in quails.
