Abstract
The role of mast cells in the elicitation of contact sensitivity (CS) responses was evaluated by transferring different aliquots of the same preparations of immune lymph node cells (I-LNC) into naive, genetically mast cell-deficient (WBB6F1-W/Wv or WCB6F1-S1/S1d) mice and the corresponding congenic normal (+/+) mice. We found that the 24-hr CS responses elicited in the recipient mast cell-deficient mice were statistically indistinguishable from those in the congenic +/+ mice according to four different criteria: micrometer measurements of ear swelling, ratios of the weight or [125I]iododeoxyuridine-labeled leukocyte infiltration-associated cpm in challenged and contralateral control ears, and amount of 125I-fibrin deposition. We also transferred I-LNC into WBB6F1-W/Wv mice which, 5 months earlier, had undergone local repair of their mast cell deficiency by the intradermal injection (into the left ear only) of growth factor-dependent cultured mast cells derived from congenic +/+ mice. When 24-hr CS responses were elicited in both ears of these mice, the reactions in the mast cell-reconstituted left ears were similar to those in the mast cell-deficient right ears. We also found that treatment of antigen-specific cloned T cells with reserpine in vitro markedly impaired their ability to transfer reactivity for CS, providing further evidence that reserpine can interfere with the expression of T-cell-mediated responses through effects independent of its action on mast cells.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 39-52 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Cellular Immunology |
Volume | 109 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 1987 |
Funding
’ Supported by U.S. Public Health Service Research Grants AI 20292, AI 22674, AI 23990, and CA 28834 and Physician-Scientist Award (to B. K. Wershil) KI 1 AM 01543. Y. A. Mekori was supported in part by a fellowship from the Israel Cancer Research Fund. J. C. C. Chang was a Special Fellow of the Leukemia Society of America. * Present address: Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, MS 409, University of Kentucky Medical Center, 800 Rose St., Lexington, KY 40536-0084. 3 To whom correspondence should be addresseda t Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Hospital, 330 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 022 15.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology