Allotype suppression in the chicken. IV. Deletion of B cells and lack of suppressor cells during chronic suppression.

Embryonally induced allotype suppression in M-1,G-1 heterozygous chickens was stable for at least 18 months after hatching. Suppression was established rapidly since injection of antigen only 4 days after anti-IgM-1 antiserum failed to abrogate its effect. Injected chickens had undetectable serum levels (i.e. less than 40 micrograms/ml) of the suppressed IgM-1 and low (0.3-0.6 mg/ml) levels of the linked IgG-1 allotype. This correlated with a complete depletion of cells bearing the relevant IgM-1 allotypes and a compensatory increase in the alternative nonsuppressed IgM-1 allotype-bearing cells in the spleen, peripheral blood and bursa. Cell transfer studies suggested that suppression could not be attributed to allotype-specific suppressor cells.