Alterations in granulation tissue growth induced in vivo by lymphocytes from adjuvant-diseased rats.

Lymph node cells from Lewis and Wistar rats, treated 9 or 11 days previously with Freund's complete (FCA) or incomplete adjuvant (FIA), were transferred into polyether sponges implanted subcutaneously into syngeneic, recipient rats. FCA-treated lymphocytes enhanced or reduced granuloma formation (measured after 8 days), when compared with FIA-treated controls, depending on the strain of mycobacterium present in the FCA. The stimulatory effects of lymphocytes from FCA-treated, Lewis rats were abolished by pre-incubation with mitomycin C (25 microgram/ml). Whole serum and isolated serum immunoglobulin from adjuvant-diseased rats had no effect on the sponge granulomas. These data confirm that cell-mediated immunity is involved in the articular granuloma formation of adjuvant arthritis.