Effect of membrane stabilizing agents on induction of the immune response. II. Inhibitory effects on lymphocyte...

The effect of three membrane stabilizing compounds, chlorpromazine, imipramine and lidocaine, on mouse spleen cells was investigated. Cellular activation by the B-cell mitogen lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was found to be inhibited. Suppressing doses also inhibited back ground DNA-synthesis and the number of background plaque forming cells. However, the degree of suppression caused by all three of the membrane stabilizing agents tested, parallelled the decline of viable cells in the cultures. It is concluded that the drug induced inhibition of LPS activation was due solely to the toxicity of the compounds.