Cellular and humoral antibody responses of normal pastel and sapphire mink to goat erythrocytes.

This study was undertaken to determine whether normal sapphire and royal pastel mink differ immunologically at the cellular and humoral levels. Two days after primary intraperitoneal (ip) inoculation of goat erythrocytes (GE), essentially no 19 or 7S plaque-forming cells (PFC) per 10(6) cells were detected in spleen or in abdominal and peripheral lymph nodes of either color phase. On the 4th day, more 19S PFC were detected in pastel than in sapphire tissues; pastel tissues also contained 7S PFC, whereas essentially none was present in sapphires until the 6th day. After an ip booster inoculation, the number of PFC was markedly different between the two color phases. These differences were most apparent in spleen and peripheral lymph nodes. In parallel with differences observed in PFC responses between the color phases, total hemolysin and 2-mercaptoethanol-resistant hemolysin titers of pastels exceeded those of sapphires in all but one interval after the primary, and at every interval after the booster, inoculation. These data indicate that sapphire mink are not immunological cripples, nor are they immunologically hyperactive, but that differences do exist between sapphire and royal pastel mink, especially in the response to booster injections of GE.