Differential responses of B cells from the spleen and lymph node to TNP-Ficoll.

Subcutaneous immunization with the thymus independent Ag, TNP-Ficoll, does not elicit plaque-forming cell response from the regional lymph node B cells even though a good response is obtained with the splenic B cells. Lymph node cells respond well to the thymus independent 1 Ag, TNP-Brucella abortus. Because TNP-Ficoll is a soluble Ag and may not be retained well in the lymph nodes, we emulsified it with Freund's adjuvant and injected it into foot pads. This did not result in any antibody response in the popliteal and inguinal lymph nodes though once again splenic B cells gave excellent responses. We find that the in vivo response to TNP-Ficoll can be induced in the lymph node if TNP-Ficoll is injected along with B. abortus in the foot pads of normal mice. This observation could not be repeated in the splenectomized mice implicating the role of the migration of APC or B cells from spleen to lymph nodes. Similar differential responses are obtained from lymph node and splenic B cells in the in vitro cultures. Lymph node cells respond to TNP-Ficoll with the addition of normal irradiated spleen cells but not with Sephadex G-10-passed spleen cells. This shows the absence of APC or lymphokines which stimulate B lymphocytes to respond to TNP-Ficoll in the lymph nodes. We found that IL-1 but not IL-2 or IL-4 was able to induce TNP-Ficoll response from the lymph node B cells.