Ontogeny of B lymphocyte function X. Strain differences in maturation of the capacity of the B lymphocyte population to produce a high‐affinity antibody response

Abstract

The ontogeny of the B lymphocyte population to be capable of producing a highaffinity plaque-forming cell (PFC) response to a haptenic determinant was studied by cell-transfer techniques in five different mouse strains. Lethally irradiated adult mice were reconstituted with liver from fetal or neonatal donors or spleen from young donors as a source of B lymphocytes. In addition, all animals received 1 x 10' adult thymus cells. Recipients were immunized with dinitrophenylated bovine gammaglobulin (DNP-BGG) one day after cell transfer. The heterogeneity of affinity of their anti-DNP PFC response was assayed by hapten inhibition of plaque formation. It was established by use of congenic mice differing at the Igh locus that only donor cells responded under these conditions. By use of this transfer system, it was shown that the B cell populations of A/HeJ, AKR and C57L/J mice aquire the capacity to produce a high-affinity PFC response between day 15 and 18 of fetal life. The B cell populations of LAF, and DBA/l J mice mature between 7 and 10 days after birth. The B cell population of C 57 BL/6 J mice matures between 21 and 28 days of age. In LAFl and AKR mice, the B cell population acquires the capacity to generate a high-affinity indirect PFC response at approximately the same time as the capacity to generate a high-affinity direct PFC response. The time of maturation of the capacity to generate indirect PFC was found to differ in different strains of mice. Maturation of the capacity to produce indirect PFC appears to represent a dinstinctly different differentiation event from the acquisition of the capacity to produce a high-affinity PFC response. The data suggest that the maturation of the B cell population to be capable of producing high-affinity PFC is a precisely regulated differentiation event, the timing of which is strain-related. Preliminary data suggest that this regulation is not linked to either the H-2 haplotype or to the Igh allotype.

Synergistic Cooperation Between T and B Lymphocytes from Old Mice in the Production of Auto-Anti-Idiotypic Antibody Regulation in Adult Irradiated Hosts

“…It should be pointed out that in cell transfer studies like these, the possibility of reactivation of host cells may exist. However, it has been previously shown in this same strain of mice (C57BL/6J) employing allotype congenic mice that no significant reactivation of host B cells does occur in this experimental model [20].…”

Fidelity in Animal Modeling: Prerequisite for a Mechanistic Research Front Relevant to the Inflammatory Incompetence of Acute Pediatric Malnutrition

“…Although the five immunological windows of vulnerability are common to mammalian species, the timing of their appearance relative to other developmental milestones varies among species; in addition, as must be expected, the duration of each immunological window is also species-specific [ 62 ]. For example, the capacity for adaptive immune memory (a component of the fifth stage of ontogeny) emerges in association with full-term parturition in humans but generally develops after weaning in rats and mice [ 62 ], although common inbred mouse strains are reported to differ dramatically in this respect [ 63 ].…”