Suppression of follicular trapping of antigen-antibody complexes in mice treated with anti-IgM or anti-IgD antibodies from birth.

Mice were treated from birth with either goat anti-mouse IgM or with a monoclonal anti-IgD antibody. When they were 8 weeks old, cohorts of these mice were given 125I-labelled antigen, either by itself, or in an antigen-antibody complex. Anti-IgM-treated mice, which did not develop follicular structures in their spleens, failed to retain immune complexes on follicular dendritic cells in the characteristic pattern. Anti-IgD-treated mice, which had small follicles consisting of IgM+ IgD- B cells in their spleens, retained substantially smaller amounts of immune complexes than normal. These results support the concept that B lymphocytes transport antigen-antibody complexes to follicular dendritic cells. Furthermore, in the mouse it seems likely that this is mediated by both IgM+ IgD+ and IgM+ IgD- B cells.