THE INVIVO FUNCTIONS AND PROPERTIES OF PERSISTING CELL-STIMULATING FACTOR

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 53  (1) , 33-42
Abstract
Persisting (P) cell-stimulating factor (PSF), a T cell lymphokine, apparently is produced and active in vivo. Mice injected in 1 footpad with keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH), or i.v. with sheep erythrocytes, had substantial increases in numbers of splenic P cell precursors; the increase following the sheep erythrocytes did not occur in athymic mice, implying a dependence on T lymphocytes. The increase in P cell precursors correlated with the local release of PSF; thus cells from the ipsilateral draining lymph node of mice injected in 1 footpad with KLH, but not cells from the contralateral node, showed both increased numbers of P cell precursors and the production of PSF. PSF could, in other situations, enter the circulation and exert effects distal to its release. Mice bearing a localized tumor that produced PSF (WEHI-3B), but not those bearing a non-producing subline, showed both a significant increase in P cell precursors in the spleen and bone marrow, and a marked increase in the numbers of mast cells, megakaryocytes, metamyelocytes and polymorphs in the spleen. PSF was detected in the serum of the mice bearing the PSF-producing tumor. Following i.v. injection of PSF into normal mice, there was a rapid initial clearance (t1/2 4 min), followed after 10 mins by a phase of slower clearance (t1/2 40 min). This was due to removal of PSF, rather than inhibition or destruction by serum factors; as when PSF was mixed in vitro with mouse serum for 24 h at 37.degree. C, no activity was lost.

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