Antibody plaque-forming cells

In rats, EGME and its metabolite have also been reported to cause thymic involution in the absence of effects on body weight or spleen weight, reduced response to T cell mitogens, depressed production of interleukin-2, and altered response to primary antibody plaque-forming cells. Mice were not affected. 

Depression of the primary antibody plaque-forming cell response in rats suggests that methoxyethanol could inhibit the humoral immune system. Testicular atrophy and depression of sperm counts are noted in animal studies. Methoxyethanol, along with several other known testicular toxins, causes an increase in the urinary creatine/creatinine ratio as one of the earliest and most sensitive markers of testicular damage after acute exposure. Methoxyethanol is considered to be a mild skin and eye irritant. Methoxyethanol is not a contact sensitizer. 

In rodents, sheep red blood cells (SRBC) are routinely used for immunization. The antibody response is determined using the plaque forming cells assay (PFC) or by plasma SRBC-specific antibody titer [21, 22], As an alternative to SRBC, other T-cell-dependent antigen may be used, including keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH), tetanus toxoid (TT), or pneumococcal antigen. 

Immunosuppressive effects have been obtained in vitro with mercuric chloride. A marked inhibition of the mixed lymphocyte reaction in mice as well as PFC (plaque forming cell) response to SRBC (sheep red blood cells) by mercuric chloride [166] has been reported. Chronic exposure to mercury of rabbits gave immunosuppression, measured as low antibody titres to viral agents [167], A suppression of antibody production in chickens exposed to mercuric chloride has also been reported [168]. Furthermore, an inhibition of mitogenic response to PHA in lymphocytes by mercuric chloride has been obtained [169],... 

Protein-deficient mice, although responding normally to phytohemagglutinin, were still able to reject skin autografts more rapidly than normally nourished controls which showed striking depression of antibody synthesis to sheep red blood cells (J7). Similarly malnourished rats which had marked suppression of plaque-forming cells and rosetteforming cells showed no difference in skin transplant rejection from their well fed controls (M18). 

Antibody-mediated immunity IgM plaque-forming cell (PFC) response to T cell-dependent... 

Information on immunological effects of 2-butoxyethanol in animals exposed orally to 2-butoxyethanol is limited to one acute and one intermediate study. Male Fischer 344 rats were immunized with trinitrophenyl-lipopolysaccharide (TNP-LPS) and then dosed by gavage (4 and 28 hours after immunization) to 0, 50, 100, 200, or 400 mg/kg/day 2-butoxyethanol in distilled water for 2 consecutive days (Smialowicz et al. 1992). Three days later, the primary plaque-forming cell (PFC) response to TNP-LPS was determined. The PFC response to TNP-LPS was used to evaluate B-l miphocyte antibody production. No toxic effect of 2-butoxyethanol in the immune system was detected. In Sprague-Dawley rats, in which males received doses of 180 or 506 mg/kg/day 2-butoxyethanol and females received doses of 204 or 444 mg/kg/day 2-butoxyethanol in the drinking water for 21 days, serum samples were... 

The antibody response to sheep erythrocytes was determined by enumerating plaque-forming cells (PFC) in splenic lymphocytes 4 days after primary immunization. Values given represent mean +... 

Antibody producing cells to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) were measured by the hemolytic plaque assay as modified by Cunningham and Szenberg (1968). Mice were inoculated i.p. with 5 x 10 SRBC on day 0, and with 25 mg/kg pyran (NSC 46051) i.v. on days — 1, 0, 1 or 2 with respect to SRBC and the splenic plaque forming cells determined on day 3,4, 5 and 6 post SRBC inoculation. 

Garlic has been shown to increase antibody production [26]. The administration of garlic powder increased the number of red blood cell hemolytic plaque-forming cells in normal mice [27] and AGE prevented the decrease of hemolytic plaque-forming cells in thymectomized mice [28]. 

Chalopin JM, Lockwood CM (1984) Autoregulation of autoantibody synthesis in mercuric chloride in the Brown Norway rat. II. Presence of antigen aug-mentable plaque forming cells in the spleen is associated with humoral factors behaving as auto-antiidiotypic antibodies. Eur J Immunol 14 470-... 

The study of the immune response at cellular level was therefore undertaken by two methods the haemolysin plaque forming cells (PFC) assay using the modified Jerne technique" and the rosette forming cells (RFC) test using the method described previously The PFC are the antibody secreting cells (mature or immature plasmocytes) derived from antigen-induced differentiation of B lymphocytes. 

Figure 4. Plaque Forming Cells (B-Cells) Producing Antibody in Mice. Used by Permission from Spallholz et al. (1973b). Copyright by the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine.

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