EXPERIMENTS ON THE ROLE OF LYMPHOID TISSUE IN THE RESISTANCE TO EXPERIMENTAL TUBERCULOSIS IN MICE

Mice either normal or splenectomized after exposure to X-ray are markedly more susceptible to bovine tuberculosis than are normal animals. Animals splenectomized a short time prior to inoculation are also more susceptible than normal, while those splenectomized eight to ten days before inoculation have about the same resistance as normal. The mice splenectomized three to four weeks before inoculation have a resistance increased over the normal, as has already been shown by Lewis and Margot. As X-ray in the doses used apparently affects only the lymphoid tissue and as the hypertrophy of the remaining lymphoid tissue after splenectomy is so rapid that the circulating lymphocytes may be much above the normal by the third week, it is concluded that this evidence, taken with the well known association of the lymphocytes with tuberculous lesions, points strongly to the lymphocyte as an important agent in the defensive mechanism against tuberculosis.