Adoptive suppression of granuloma formation.

Anti-egg granulomas formed in mice with chronic S. mansoni infection are smaller than those formed early (8 wk) after infection. Passive transfer of serum from mice with chronic infections to recipient mice with developing (6 wk) infections did not affect hepatic granuloma size at 8 wk of infection. In contrast, either spleen cells or lymph node cells from mice with chronic infections strongly suppressed the granulomatous process in recipient mice. Spleen cells, but not lymph node cells, of early-(7 wk) infected mice exhibited some ability to diminish granuloma formation in recipients. It appeared that the use of two sequential, weekly passive transfers of spleen or lymph node cells from chronic mice was even more effective in this suppressive capacity than a single transfer.