Immunological Competence in the Newly Hatched Lizard, Calotes versicolor

No evidence that estrogens affect the development of the immune system in the red-eared slider turtle, Trachemys scripta

“…In the ocellated skink (Chalcides ocellatus) and the soft-shelled turtle (Trionyx sinensis), development of the thymus and spleen occurs during the final third of embryonic development (El Deeb and Saad, 1990). The garden lizard (Calotes vesicolor) can mount an antibody response to foreign antigens at hatch (Kanakambika and Muthukkaruppan, 1972), indicating a relatively mature immune system at hatching, while snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) can only reject allografts after several months (Borysenko and Tulipan, 1973), indicating that their immune system takes longer to develop. Little information is available on the development of the immune response in red-eared sliders, and consequently, we had no previous studies on which to base our timing of immune measures.…”