Studies on the thymus-dependent immunity in the rat mutant "nude"

Different T-cell capacities in nude, athymic rats were tested. Spleen cells from nude rats were unable to give significant responses to Con A as could spleen cells from normal rats. No precipitating antibodies after immunization with chicken serum were observed in nude rats, although such antibodies were found in the haired rats. The experiments confirmed that the used stock of nude rats had a similar T-cell defect as the original Rowett strain of nude rats.