Antibody responses to thymic independent antigens in the peripheral and mesenteric lymph nodes of mice
Goud, S.N.; Kaplan, A.M.; Subbarao, B.
Regional Immunology 3(1): 1-7
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0896-0623 PMID: 2121216 Document Number: 359130
Differentiation of B lymphocytes from various peripheral lymph nodes (PLN) of mice was studied in the in vitro and in vivo conditions. Subcutaneous (SC) immunization in the foot pads with thymic independent (TI)-2 antigens such as polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), R36A, and Trinitrophenyl (TNP)-Dextran failed to elicit plaque forming cell (PFC) responses from the draining popliteal and inguinal lymph nodes, whereas the splenic B cells of these animals exhibited good PFC response. Injection of unconjugated Brucella abortus (BA) along with TNP-Dextran was able to induce anti-TNP PFC formation from the draining lymph node B cells. However, PVP + BA or R36A + BA failed to stimulate such antigen specific B cell responses from the lymph nodes. Since TI antigens are metabolized slowly because of their long repeating subunits, we measured antibody responses up to 8 weeks after SC immunization with TNP-Ficoll and failed to observe any anti-TNP IgM PFC in the lymph nodes. TNP-Ficoll, in contrast to TI-1 antigen TNP-BA, did not induce IgG PFC response in the draining lymph node cells. In in vitro cultures, TNP-Ficoll induced the B cell differentiation from mesenteric lymph node (MLN) cells but not from the PLN cells. This activation of MLN B cells with TNP-Ficoll was limited to normal DBA/2J mice and was absent in the MLN cells of X-linked immune defective CBA/N mice. Finally, there was good antibody response from the inguinal and lumbar lymph node cells after an intraperitoneal immunization with TNP-BA but not with TNP-Ficoll. These findings demonstrate important differences in the ability of lymph node B cells from different anatomical sites to respond to TI antigens. The stimulation of MLN B cells by polysaccharide antigens should be considered in the development of vaccines against microbial pathogens.