Recirculating and sessile B cell populations in normal and CBA/N mice

Chromosomally distinguishable syngeneic mice were parabiosed and the resultant chimerism was followed for 6 weeks in the lymphoid organs, by culturing their cells with polyclonal mitogens, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for B cells and phytohemagglutinin (PHA) for T cells. As expected of a recirculating population, the T cells equilibrated completely. The B cells in lymph nodes (LN) and Peyer's patches (PP) also equilibrated completely, suggesting that they too are recirculating. B cells in the spleen and blood, however, did not equilibrate over this period. After separation of parabiosed mice, the percentage of partner cells in both the recirculating T and B lymphocyte populations declined steadily, but it continued to rise in the LPS-responsive populations in spleen and peripheral blood suggesting that they were derived from precursor populations which were themselves chimeric. Injection of lymphocytes into CBA/Ca or CBA/N mice showed that LPS-responsive populations in LN and spleen localized differently. These results have been interpreted as demonstrating two major populations of LPS-responsive B lymphocytes in the mouse, one recirculating and the other sessile. The recirculating population appears to be the only LPS-responsive population in LN and PP. In the spleen, however, the recirculating cells constitute about a quarter of the LPS-responsive cells, while the rest are sessile cells. The relationship between these two populations has yet to be clarified. CBA/N mice are deficient in both populations but the sessile one appears to be more severely depleted.