Immunological properties of heterozygous nu/+ mice: changes in antibody response and inducibility of tolerance to protein antigens.

Heterozygous nu/+ mice are not fully identical in their immunological properties with the mice of wild +/+ genotype. A colony of nu/nu, nu/+ and +/+ mice from the same breeding nucleus was established and their immune reactivity to human serum albumin, inducibility of adult immune tolerance to hen egg lysozyme (HEL), sensitivity of their lymphoid cells to stimulation by mitogens and ratio of CD3, CD4 and CD8 positive cell populations was studied. Both the numbers of antibody-forming cells in regional lymph nodes and the antibody titres in sera of nu/+ mice were highly variable, between undetectable values of nu/nu and high values of +/+ homozygotes. Intravenous pretreatment with soluble HEL, leading in +/+ mice to a deep hyporeactivity to subsequent immunization with the same antigen, did not decrease the response of nu/+ mice significantly. These results indicate that the immunological alteration of nu/+ mice is not only quantitative and that T cell subpopulations might be differentially modified by the presence of nu allele. The finding of decreased CD4:CD8 ratio in nu/+ mice also supports this idea.