Secondary Antibody-Forming Potential of Aged Mice, with Special Reference to the Influence of Adjuvant on Priming

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Abstract
Aged (20 months old) NMRI mice, showing a significantly reduced primary immune response to 4 × 108 sheep erythrocytes (SE), reacted to a secondary injection of 4 × 108 SE 1 month after primary immunization with a typical secondary immune response at both the adjuvant cellular and humoral levels. This specific anamnestic response was not found to be diminished, as compared to that of young adult controls (3 months old at the time of primary immunization). When killed cells of Bordetella pertussis were given as an adjuvant together with the primarily injected erythrocyte antigen, the process of priming for the secondary immune response was found to be significantly increased in both the aged and the young adult animals. The impressive restoration of the antibody-forming potential observed following secondary antigenic stimulation was associated with a remarkable restoration of the splenic structure. Splenic amyloidosis did not impair the secondary antibody-forming potential to a significant extent. It is suggested that the suppressed immunological reactivity of aged mice to a primary antigenic stimulus is mainly due to deficiencies in the regulatory factors, such as antigen-processing and antigenic triggering of immunocompetent precursor cells.

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