Control of T-cell-dependent antibody responses of mice to rat antigens by donor cell types

Administration of rat red blood cells (RBC) into mice induced a rat antigen-specific T-cell-dependent primary antibody response that was detected by a plaque assay using rat RBC as a target. This response was not induced by rat thymocytes or rat spleen cells that should share rat-specific antigens with rat RBC. We then demonstrated that rat spleen cells but not rat thymocytes, which were administered with rat RBC, partially inhibit the action of rat RBC for induction of the anti-rat response. This inhibition required live donor FcR+ cells, and seemed to be specific to rat antigens common to RBC and spleen cells. The findings supported the idea that the control by donor cell types, which was originally shown to work for T-cell-independent antibody response [3,5], should be effective for T-cell-dependent response beyond the species barrier.