Effect of removal of lymphatic tissue on immune response in mice

¹ Biology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Extensive lymphatic tissue removal in mice prolonged skin homograft survival as long as 32 days in one animal, but the longest median rejection time for a given experiment was 17 days. The longest homograft survival in sham-operated controls was 14 days; median rejection time was 10 days. A median rejection time of 18 days was seen in a few mice given 400 r after the extensive lymphatic tissue removal. When second set homograft response was studied there was no significant effect of the tissue removal. Extensive lymphatic tissue removal markedly reduced the serum antibody response to a small dose of sheep RBC antigen for both the primary and secondary responses. Relatively little recovery of ability to respond was seen with the primary response during the 18-day period of observation. Lymphatic tissue removal did not alter the serum protein electrophoretic mobility pattern. Little compensatory hyperplasia of residual or ectopic lymphatic tissue was seen at the completion of the experiments. Regeneration of lymphatic tissue did not take place at operative sites except near the pancreas where complete extirpation of lymph nodes was difficult to perform.