Studies of efferent lymph cells from nodes stimulated with oxazolone

Efferent lymph from nodes regional to areas of skin that had been treated with solutions of oxazolone in acetone was collected from unanaesthetized sheep. The application of 5% solutions of oxazolone to unsensitized sheep caused no signs of acute inflammation or 'shut-down' of lymphocyte traffic; none the less, normal immune responses ensued so that immunoblasts, some containing immunoglobulin, were discharged into the lymph together with specific humoral antibodies. When previously sensitized sheep were challenged with 2.5% solutions of oxazolone the vigorous secondary responses were heralded by Arthus reactions, induced presumably by pre-existing antibodies, which were mainly of the IgG class. A similar sequence of events occurred in a thymus-deprived sheep which had undergone intra-uterine thymectomy at 60 days of gestation. Repeated applications of oxazolone to normal sheep did not exhaust or inhibit the characteristic changes in the flow and composition of the lymph. When immunoblasts from efferent lymph were radiolabeled with 125I-UdR and returned intravenously to the sheep they showed no significant tendency to localize either specifically or non-specifically in areas of skin that had been treated with contact-sensitizing chemicals.