Adoptive transfer of immunity to Plasmodium berghei with immune T and B lymphocytes.

Immunity to malarial infection may be transferred with immune lymphocytes. This study was designed to determine which lymphocyte type is responsible for the adoptive transfer of immunity to malarial infection. In one set of experiments, the ability of immune T and B lymphocytes, separated by passage through nylon-wool columns, to transfer immunity to infection was determined. In another experiment, the effect of killing T lymphocytes with anti-theta serum on the transfer of immunity was determined. The effect on the ability of immune lymphocyte suspensions to transfer immunity after B lymphocytes were removed from such suspensions by centrifugation on Ficoll-Hypaque gradients, after they had formed rosettes with sensitized, complement-coated sheep erythrocytes, was also determined. The ability of lymphocyte suspensions to adoptively transfer resistance to malarial infection was greatly impaired by the removal from the suspensions of differentiated B-type lymphocytes. Our results indicate that it is the differentiated B cell, most probably an antibody-producing cell, which lacks both theta antigen and the complement receptor that is responsible for conferring immunity to malaria.