Mouse spleen cell populations involved in the mitogenic response to protein A

In this paper, we examined the cellular components involved in the mitogenic response of mouse spleen cells to protein A. The mitogenic response was almost abrogated by the removal of macrophages. The abrogated response could be restored by the addition of peritoneal exudate macrophages from syngeneic mice. The reconstitution experiments were carried out for studying the populations of lymphocytes responding to protein A. In these experiments, spleen cells were passed through a Sephadex G-10 column and then they were separated into nylon-wool-adherent and nonadherent cells. The nylon-wool-nonadherent cells were used as T cells. The nylon-wool-adherent cells were used as B cells after they were treated with anti-BAT and complement. These results indicated that both B and T cells responded to protein A, and T-B cell cooperation could possibly play some role in the response.