Stimulation of splenic antigen uptake and of antibody response in mice by India ink or other "blockading" agents

Abstract

India ink or other finely divided agents (trypan blue, saccharated iron oxide, thorotrast, polystyrene latex) were injected intravenously into mice, and sheep erythrocyte stroma injected subsequently by the same route.

The splenic uptake of stroma carrying a tag of ¹³¹I was consistently higher in mice treated with the `blockading' agents than in untreated controls, the difference in some experiments being greater than ten-fold.

In addition to promoting the splenic uptake of antigen, some of the finely divided agents also enhanced the formation of anti-sheep red cell haemolysin in mice immunized with a single intravenous injection of sheep erythrocyte stroma.

India ink injected intravenously caused a significant rise in the splenic weight of mice.