[Discernment of the sensitized inner ear by peripheral immunocompetent lymphocytes]

To understand the role of peripheral immunocompetent lymphocytes during an immune response in the inner ear.

Sensitized lymphocytes from peripheral blood, neck lymph nodes and spleen from three groups of donor animals (group A was immunized intradermally with KLH and both inner ears were challenged with KLH; group B received only KLH intradermally without an inner ear challenge, and groups C were naive animals) were labelled with 51Cr and injected intravenously into recipients (all of which were immunized intradermally with right inner ears challenged with KLH). Twenty to twenty-four hours later, the temporal bones of recipients were assayed for radioactivity to detect the infiltration of labelled cells.

In group A and B, the right temporal bones showed higher radioactivity than the left temporal bones (P < 0.05). The highest labelling was detected in the right temporal bones of group A. The lowest migration of 51Cr-labelled cells to the inner ear was found in group C animals. The highest ratios between right (challenged) and left (unchallenged) were found in group A animals compared with those of group B and group C. The value was significantly higher in group A than in group B and C (P < 0.05).

The results showed that the inner ear comes under the immunosurveillance of the peripheral circulation in response to antigenic stimulation.