Enumeration of Specific Antibody-Forming Cells of the Mouse Spleen after Stimulation with Protein Antigens 1

Abstract

Summary

Enumeration of the cells in the mouse spleen making a specific response to antigenic stimulation indicates that the first detectable antibody appears in a few cells in the red pulp in the first 12 hr; later, such cells appear in the white pulp, and, though their number increases in both locations, the gain is more rapid in the white pulp, reaching a peak on the 12th day in the primary response, and on the 5th in the secondary, when there are two to four times as many cells there as in the red pulp. The response in the white pulp requires a higher threshold dose than that in the red pulp.

We thank Inez Serur and Nancy Delancy for devoted technical help during the performance of these experiments.