Experimental Investigations of the Relationship between Plasma Cells and Antibody Formation (Phase Contrast Microscope)

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The phase contrast microscope showed that the plasma cells appearing after reinjection in the spleen of TAB vaccine-sensitized rabbits contain drop-like, dark granules which increase in number during the following days reaching a peak on the 5th day after reinjection. With the first appearance of antibodies in the blood on the 6th day, granulation is rapidly lost, so that only very few granulated plasma cells can be traced on the 8th and 9th days. These cytoplasmic changes correspond to the dark granulation seen with the phase contrast microscope in myeloma cells and may be connected with formation of certain globulins, since pathologic globulins increase in myeloma in a way analogous to the increase of antibodies and the appearance of a 2d gamma-wave in electrophoresis in these expts. ACTH and cortisone, if given simultaneously with reinjn. of vaccine and on the following days did not change antibody formation or the plasmocellular reaction, but if started 8 days before reinjn., a marked decrease occurred. Washed cell suspensions of the spleen showed marked production of antibodies on the 5th and 6th day.
Keywords