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IMMUNE RESPONSE TO A HAPTEN COUPLED TO A NONIMMUNOGENIC CARRIER

1972; Rockefeller University Press; Volume: 136; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1084/jem.136.2.392

1540-9538

Jon R. Schmidtke, Frank J. Dixon,

Immunotherapy and Immune Responses

Cooperation between two or more cell types is an essential feature of the immune response to some antigens (1).These cell types are commonly referred to as thymus derived (T) and bone marrow derived (B).Furthermore, in the immune response to a hapten bound to a carrier protein these two cell types perform quite separate and distinct cooperative functions (2-5).The T cell is responsible for recognition of the carrier and has been termed the helper cell (5, 6) ; the B cell synthesizes antibody to the hapten.In another series of observations lipopolysaccharide (LPS), endotoxin, from Gram-negative bacteria was shown to alter thymic-deficient mice so that they could respond with antibody formation to thymic-dependent antigens.Mice that were thymectomized, lethally irradiated, and bone marrow reconstituted (TxB) responded to heterologous red cells coated with LPS (7).Also, lethally irradiated, bone marrow reconstituted mice responded to injections of sheep red blood cells (SRBC) when accompanied by LPS (8).LPS alone acted as a mitogen on B cells (9, 10).Thus, when antigen is present LPS might substitute for T cell function by direct stimulation of B cells which are then able to form antibody to the antigen resulting in an immune response.If a h a p t e n such as trinitrophenyl ( T N P ) were coupled to a n o n i m m u n o g e n i c carrier such as isologous mouse red blood cells ( M R B C ) , no i m m u n e response would be expected from the injected host because the T, or helper, cell would not recognize M R B C as a foreign carrier.However, if L P S did stimulate B cells directly, it m i g h t be hypothesized that, in the presence of L P S , an i m m u n e response to a hapten on a n o n i m m u n o g e n i c carrier could be induced.