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Mitogen-transformed human peripheral blood lymphocytes and tonsil blasts were examined by rosette formation to detect the presence of membrane-bound immunoglobulin (Ig) and surface receptors for fixed IgG and fixed C3. In addition, the capacity of these cells to rosette with sheep erythrocytes was evaluated as a reaction characteristic of T lymphocytes. In order for clear morphological recognition of the rosetting transformed lymphocytes and the rosetting tonsil blasts a cytocentrifuge technique was developed and used in conjunction with autoradiography and/or with Romanowsky stains. Using these techniques and the culture methods described in this paper phytohaemagglutinin, pokeweed mitogen, streptococcal filtrates and purified protein derivative stimulated predominantly T cells in the peripheral blood of man. A minority of the transformed cells in these mitogen-stimulated cultures (<24%) did rosette with B lymphocyte markers and presumably represent a B-cell response. No significant differences were found between the T- or B-cell specificity of the mitogens investigated. Lymphoid preparations from tonsils excised from normal donors with recurrent tonsillitis were found to contain 6-15% lymphoblasts and the iarge majority of these cells formed rosettes with the B-cell markers, less than 20% of these lymphoblasts formed spontaneous sheep erythrocyte rosettes. Using a mixed rosetting technique a small proportion (<5%) of PHA-transformed cells and tonsil lymphoblasts were found to have combined sheep Fc or combined sheep C3 receptors. The investigation of B- and T-lymphocyte surface markers on mitogentransformed lymphocytes was extended to neopiastic lymphocyte populations and it was found that the majority of transformed cells (>70%) present in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia cultures stimulated with PHA after 6 days incubation were transformed T lymphocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents abstracts of the papers presented at the Fifth Meeting of the Scandinavian Society for Immunology, which took place from May 29-31, 1974, in Copenhagen, Denmark. A culture technique is described that allows the primary antibody response by chicken spleen cells to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC), determined as direct plaque-forming cells (PEC), to be investigated. Mixed lymphocyte culture and the elimination of responding cells with bromodioxyuridine and ultraviolet light with a subsequent restimulation were used to study the development of specifically recognizing T lymphocytes.

This paper describes the course of infection and certain pathological changes in thymus-deprived and normal CBA mice after oral infection with Trichinella spiralis. Greater morbidity was found among deprived mice and deaths due to trichiniasis occurred solely in this group. The local inflammatory response in the gut and skeletal muscles was defective in deprived animals: compared to normal mice it was slower to develop, contained fewer cells and was inadequately sustained. There was a striking paucity of tissue eosinophils and this was correlated with failure of deprived mice to develop a blood eosinophilia. The parasites appeared to persist longer in the gut of deprived animals and progressively more parasites were recovered from the carcasses of these mice at later stages of the infection. The present findings indicate that thymus-dependent cell populations are implicated in the host response to T. spiralis; and some possible modes of action of T cells are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the previous paper we showed that the immune response to sheep red cells (SRBC) was degenerate; serum antibodies showed increasing loss of specificity, signalled by cross-reactions with horse RBC (HRBC), with time after immunization and with hyperimmunization. In the present report we have analysed the role T cells may play in this process. To do this we studied the antibodies made by mice deprived of T cells by irradiation as well as those made by normal mice immunized with SRBC in distilled water, which was shown to depress the DNA synthetic response of T cells. In both instances the mice with fewer responding T cells made less antibody which could agglutinate HRBC than did the appropriate controls. This was true even when no difference in anti-SRBC titre was apparent. In addition we showed that the antibody made by mice with reduced numbers of T cells was less effective at passive suppression of the immune response to SRBC than was similarly titred (against SRBC) antibody made by normal mice. Thus, certain sub-populations of antibodies, normally made in response to SRBC, immunization, are particularly thymus dependent. We have discussed why we think they are those of particularly high affinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]