A study of tonsillar immunological function was performed by investigating how rabbit tonsil antibody-producing lymphocytes after sensitization against sheep red blood cells (SRBC) were affected by anti-thymocyte serum (ATS).
Antiserum was obtained by sensitizing goats with mixture of rabbit thymus cells and Freund's adjuvant and by absorbing serum with rabbit red blood cells. In vitro the sensitization by Marbrook's method and in vivo the sensitization by intravenous injection were performed. Plaque forming cell (PFC) assay was carried out according to the method of Cunningham & Szenberg in tonsils, lymph nodes and spleens.
Results were as follows;
1) In vitro anti-SRBC response of lymphocytes treated by ATS and complement remarkably suppressed.
2) When lymphocytes sensitized in vivo were treated with ATS and complement, survival rate of PFC was significantly higher than that of total cells.
3) Tonsil cells indicated higher sensitivity for ATS than lymphnode cells and spleen cells did.
4) The number of direct or indirect PFC per a million of the lymphocytes from tonsils was always less than that from lymph nodes and spleens.
5) Judging from the number of total indirect PFC after in vivo sensitization, the amount of antibodies produced in the cervical lymphnode was 46 times and that in the spleen was 258 times more than that in the tonsil.
The author discussed these results and considered that the tonsil was peripheral lymphatic organ but its functions were, different from that of lymphnode and spleen, obtaining, folding and transmissing the antigenic information rather than producing antibody.
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