Ontogeny of susceptibility of mouse splenic B cells to tolerance induction in vitro by TNP-D-GL.

The susceptibility of mouse spleen cells to hapten-specific tolerance induction of a primary in vitro thymus-independent antibody response was examined. Both the induction of tolerance by 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl-D-glutamic acid-D-lysine (TNP96D-GL) and of antibody formation (elicited by TNP-Brucella abortus) in neonatal spleen cell cultures were unaffected by anti-Thy-1.2 plus complement treatment. Spleen cells from neonatal mice were only slightly more sensitive to TNP96D-GL tolerance induction than were cells from adult mice. The difference in susceptibility to tolerance induction was not nearly as great as that predicted by "clonal abortion"-type theories of B cell tolerogenesis.