The antibody response of rats depleted of lymphocytes by chronic drainage from the thoracic duct

Abstract

Experimental procedures which deplete lymphoid tissue of small lymphocytes have provided circumstantial evidence that small lymphocytes play a part in primary immune responses. Thus, the primary antibody response of animals can be depressed or abolished by agents which damage lymphoid tissue in vivo (1-6) or by neonatal thymectomy which prevents its normal development (7). Although the striking histological abnormality in such animals is a severe depletion of small lymphocytes it cannot be concluded that this is the only abnormality. The view that the immunological deficiency is due solely to a lack of small lymphocytes would be greatly strengthened if the unresponsiveness could be corrected by injections of small lymphocytes from normal animals. © 1963, Rockefeller University Press., All rights reserved.