Ontogeny of susceptibility of mouse splenic B cells to tolerance induction in vitro by TNP‐D‐GL (original) (raw)

The susceptibility of mouse spleen cells to hapten‐specific tolerance induction of a primary in vitro thymus‐independent antibody response was examined. Both the induction of tolerance by 2,4,6‐trinitrophenyl‐D‐glutamic acid‐D‐lysine (TNP96D‐GL) and of antibody formation (elicited by TNP‐Brucella abortus) in neonatal spleen cell cultures were unaffected by anti‐Thy‐1.2 plus complement treatment. Spleen cells from neonatal mice were only slightly more sensitive to TNP96D‐GL tolerance induction than were cells from adult mice. The difference in susceptibility to tolerance induction was not nearly as great as that predicted by “clonal abortion”‐type theories of B cell tolerogenesis.