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G J Nossal

Publications and source records attributed to G J Nossal.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

Maturation of B lymphocytes. II. Sequential appearance of increasing IgM and IgD in the adult bone marrow.

The relationship between surface IgM (sIgM) and surface IgD (sIgD) was examined on small lymphocytes in the adult murine bone marrow or prepubertal spleen. Cells were sorted on the basis of different sIgM levels by a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) and relabeled for sIgD or total sIg by a sandwich technique using 125I-labeled protein A and radioautography. For detecting sIgD, an anti-delta allotype reagent was used in congenic mice. Cells lacking sIgM in the bone marrow or spleen were also found to be sIgD-; thus, sIgD appeared only in the presence of sIgM. Weak sIgM-bearing cells in the bone marrow also had no sIgD indicating that sIgD appeared only after the acquisition of a significant level of sIgM. Subsequently, the incidence of sIgD+ cells increased in fractions showing increasing sIgM levels indicating the acquisition of new sIgD by "sIgM only" cells with increasing maturation levels in the bone marrow. In marrow lymphoid cells expressing both Ig isotypes, sIgM and sIgD levels increased in parallel, possibly with increasing maturation level. In the spleen, the incidence of sIgD+ cells among various cell fractions showing different sIgM levels was found constant. However, spleen cells bearing both receptors, showed a small increase in the sIgD level with increasing sIgM level.

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Mechanisms of clonal abortion tolerogenesis. II. Clonal behaviour of immature B cells following exposure to anti-mu chain antibody.

This paper uses B-lymphocyte cloning methods to quantify the effects of anti-mu chain antibody on immature and mature B cells. Nude mouse spleen lymphocytes were incubated with various concentrations of sheep anti-mouse mu chain antibody for times varying from 10 min to 24 h. They were then washed and plated in the agar B-cell colony formation assay. Five to six days later, control B cells had developed into colonies with a plating efficiency of about 5%. B cells from newborn mice pretreated with anti-mu yielded fewer colonies. Remarkably low concentrations sufficed to inhibit subsequent mitogenesis. For example, 3 microgram/ml acting for 1 h or 0.1 microgram/ml acting for 24 h gave greater than 50% inhibition. Adult B cells were about thirty-fold more resistant to negative signalling. Immature cells become more profoundly inhibited as anti-mu treatment was prolonged. Anti-Ia or anti-H2 antibodies, in the absence of complement, did not deliver a negative signal. Anti-mu pretreatment also reduced the capacity of immature B cells to form clones of anti-hapten antibody-forming cells in a liquid microculture system where the triggering stimulus was a T-cell independent antigen. Mature 'T-independent' B cells were not inhibited. Populations of hapten-specific B cells prepared by the hapten-gelatin method were investigated in the agar cloning system. Pretreatment of immature cells with anti-mu reduced their capacity to form colonies, this subpopulation of cells behaving like unfractionated B cells. Furthermore, hapten-HGG delivered a negative signal also. Mature hapten-specific cells or unfractionated immature spleen cells formed normal numbers of colonies following hapten-HGG treatment. Overall, the studies support the view that anti-mu antibody and hapten-HGG deliver strong negative signals to immature but not mature cells with appropriate receptors. The value of anti-mu as a model, universal tolerogen was supported. Fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis was performed to study the relationships between functional inhibition and Ig receptor modulation. We confirmed that the IgM receptors of immature B cells are more readily modulated by anti-mu antibody than those of mature cells. Furthermore, the receptor regeneration could be partially inhibited amongst immature but not mature B cells. There was not a close quantitative relationship between the degree of modulation and the degree of functional inhibition. The results did not support the view that irreversible receptor modulation as such was the cause of functional inhibition.

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Mechanisms of clonal abortion tolerogenesis. I. Response of immature hapten-specific B lymphocytes.

B lymphocytes with receptors specific for the hapten fluorescein (FLU) were prepared from the spleens of mice of various ages. For most experiments, a one-step fractionation procedure based on the adherence of FLU-specific cells to FLU-gelatin was used. For some experiments, a subset of higher FLU-binding capacity was prepared from the FLU-gelatin binding population through the use of the fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS). FLU-specific B cells were placed into microculture with either FLU(3.6)-human gamma globulin (FLU(3.6)HGG) or FLU(12)HGG usually for 24 h at 37 degrees C. The tolerogen was then removed and 0.1 mug/ml of a T-independent antigen, FLU-polymerized flagellin, was substituted. 3 days later, cells were harvested from the microcultures and assayed for FLU-specific plaque-forming cells to determine any reduction in clonable hapten-specific B cells which the tolerogenesis treatment might have induced. The results showed that with FLU(3.6)HGG, hapten-specific newborn B cells could be tolerized at 1,000-fold lower tolerogen concentrations than adult splenic B cells of equal antigen-binding capacity. The high-avidity subset was even more susceptible to tolerance induction. Tolerance could be induced within 8 but not within 2 h, and at lower tolerogen concentrations, longer periods of tolerogenesis were required for a given effect. Using a 24-h tolerogenesis phase, 50 percent reduction in clone frequency among newborn FLU-gelatin fractionated cells was achieved at 0.08 mug/ml of FLU(3.6)HGG. Tolerance induction in immature B cells was inhibited by the concomitant presence of a polyclonal B-cell activator, Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) but tolerance once induced, was stable to challenge with LPS. Tolerogenesis was hapten specific. The proportion of tolerizable cells in spleens decreased with increasing age, reaching 50 percent at around 9 days. FLUI(12)HGG proved a more powerful tolerogen than FLU(3.6)HGG. It had an effect on adult cells, 50 percent reduction in clone frequency being noted at around 1 mug/ml. However, and in contrast to results claimed for other T- independent systems, there still was a major difference between immature and mature B cells, the immature cells displaying much greater sensitivity to tolerogenesis.

Animals↗

The anti-delta suppressed mouse.

The ontogeny of IgD was examined in neonatal to adult mice by immunofluorescence. The first delta-positive cells appeared in the spleen at about 3 days of age, while lymph nodes from 4 to 5-day-old mice already contained 10--20% delta-positive B cells. In order to study the function of IgD, we developed a system in which the appearance of delta-positive cells was suppressed by treatment of mice from birth with an anti-delta allotype serum. Immunofluorescence studies showed that very few delta-positive cells could be found in the spleen and lymph nodes of such suppressed mice, and also that the percentage of mu-positive cells was reduced by about 50%. The recovery from suppression was rapid, indicating that potential delta-positive cells were modulated rather than killed. Studies of the immune response of suppressed mice in vitro and in vivo showed that suppression had little effect on the IgM response but caused a definite reduction in the IgG response.

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