Immunoglobulin-bearing stem cells for clones of B (bursa-derived) lymphocytes.

Treatment of neonatal chickens with cyclophosphamide depletes bursal lymphocytes while maintaining the bursal epithelium intact. The bursae of normal young chickens contain "bursal stem cells" which can reconstitute the lymphoid compartment in the bursa of the cyclophosphamide-treated recipient. Using bursal stem cells from IgM allotype-heterozygous donors we show that most bursal follicles in the reconstituted host are colonized by single stem cells which are committed to the expression of one or other IgM allotype.

Effects of 5-fluorouracil on dihydrofolate reductase and dihydrofolate reductase mRNA from methotrexate-resistant KB cells.

Growth of methotrexate-resistant dihydrofolate reductase gene-amplified KB cells in the presence of 5-fluorouracil results in an increase in dihydrofolate reductase mRNA. This increase can be solely attributed to a species of RNA of approximately 3.5 kilobase pairs in size.

Clones of B lymphocytes in individual follicles of the bursa of Fabricius.

To discover whether individual bursal follicles can contain clones of B lymphocytes, we estimated the numbers of lymphoid cell precursors populating single follicles in two types of chicken chimera. The first type was produced by establishing parabiotic connections between blood vessels of embryo chorioallantoic membranes. Under these conditions, and most likely during normal development, most follicles are populated by more than one, but less than ten, precursor cells.

A monoclonal antibody recognizes an epitope common to an avian-specific nuclear antigen and to cytokeratins.

X3, a monoclonal antibody of unusual specificity, is described. This antibody reacts with one or more cytokeratin polypeptides and also reacts with an avian (chicken, quail) nuclear antigen that appears to be present in all cell types (chicken) tested, although with variable staining pattern and intensity. This antigen is distinct from the cytokeratins but does have an epitope in common with this class of proteins.

5-fluorouracil modulation of dihydrofolate reductase RNA levels in methotrexate-resistant KB cells.

Cytotoxicity and growth inhibition by 5-fluorouracil in methotrexate-resistant dihydrofolate reductase gene-amplified KB cells in the presence of 30 microM thymidine correlates with incorporation of this fluorinated pyrimidine into RNA. Growth of these cells over several generations in the presence of inhibitory concentrations of 5-fluorouracil does not depress the steady state levels of either 18 or 28 S RNA but actually causes an increase. Similarly the rates of RNA and protein synthesis in 5-fluorouracil-treated cells are not decreased.

Genetic control of the response of chicken T lymphocytes to concanavalin A: cellular localization of the low responder defect.

Genetic variation in the response of chicken lymphocytes to the T cell mitogen concanavalin A (Con A) has previously been studied by assaying tritiated thymidine [( 3H]dThd) uptake of cultured cells following mitogen stimulation. Our present results show, firstly, that low [3H]dThd uptake (e.g.

Characterisation of Concanavalin A-binding glycoproteins from mouse splenic leukocytes by two-dimensional electrophoresis: preferential binding of incompletely glycosylated forms of H-2 antigen to the lectin.

Concanavalin A (Con A)section-binding proteins from mouse spleen leukocytes were characterised by two-dimensional electrophoresis of material precipitated, by Con A plus anti-Con A, from lysates of biosynthetically-labelled cells. Although most cell surface (iodinatable) proteins are known to bind Con A, some of the major Con A-binding proteins detected by immunoprecipitation, after a four-hour biosynthetic labelling period, are not iodinatable and are probably intracellular. Thus the major biosynthetically labelled Con A-binding species are: (i) a non-iodinatable, high molecular weight glycoprotein (C-145); (ii) intracellular precursors of secretory immunoglobulins (IgM and, probably, IgA); (iii) immature (not fully-sialylated) forms of H-2 D and K antigens; and (iv) Ia antigens.

Monoclonal antibodies against chicken lymphocyte surface antigens.

Spleen and lymph node cells of BALB/c mice, previously immunized with chicken thymic or bursa cells, were fused with Sp2/0-Ag14 mouse myeloma cells. Hybridomas from two fusions were selected on the basis of reactivity of their secreted antibodies towards thymic or bursal tissues in an indirect immunofluorescence assay. Four monoclonal antibodies reacting with different cell surface proteins of chicken lymphocytes were characterized, as follows.

Monoclonal antibody which recognizes a common antigenic determinant on intermediate filament proteins, actin, and myosin.

A monoclonal antibody is described which reacts with the intermediate filament proteins vimentin, desmin, keratins, actin, and myosin. This is the first report of an epitope common to intermediate filament proteins and myosin. X1, the wide-spectrum monoclonal antibody in question, was isolated in the course of screening monoclonal antibodies to chicken thymocytes.

Biochemical characterization of avian T lymphocyte-specific antigens.

Sera from rabbits injected with quail thymocytes were absorbed on quail bursal and liver cells. The absorbed sera reacted with avian T but not B lymphocytes in an immunofluorescence assay. Material precipitated by the anti-T antisera from lysates of radioiodinated chicken or quail thymocytes was analyzed by one- and two-dimensional electrophoresis.

Biosynthesis of two forms of IgM heavy chains by normal mouse B lymphocytes. Membrane and secretory IgM.

A study of the biosynthesis of IgM by purified mouse spleen lymphocytes showed that these cells synthesize both 8 S membrane IgM and 19S secretory IgM, which is identical with plasma cell IgM except in its kinetics of processing, assembly, and secretion. The heavy (mu) chains of these two types of lymphocyte IgM differ in their ultimate fate, in processing, isoelectric point, and peptide composition. The separate precursors of the two mu chains have very similar mobilities in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, but they can be distinguished by the use of endoglucosaminidase H (endo-H) to remove core sugars, by two-dimensional electrophoresis, and by one-dimensional gel analysis in pulse-chase experiments.

Characterization of mouse thymocyte and peripheral lymphocyte xenoantigens by two-dimensional electrophoresis.

Two-dimensional electrophoresis was used to analyze the surface glycoproteins of murine thymocytes and lymph node cells. Two-dimensional maps of unselected, radioiodinated lymphocyte surface proteins were complex, showing at least 20 different components, but simpler patterns were obtained by using rabbit antibodies directed against the surface proteins of a T lymphoma cell line, to precipitate xenoantigens from lysates of radioiodinated or biosynthetically labeled thymocytes and lymph node cells. These xenoantibodies precipitated 12-13 distinct components from each cell type, of which all but 3 were sialoglycoproteins.

Complementation between genetic variants affecting the response of chicken leukocytes to concanavalin A.

Birds of the partially inbred G-B1 chicken line can be classified as either high or low responders to Con A, on the basis of the amount of 3H-thymidine incorporated by Con A-containing cultures of their peripheral blood leukocytes. The pattern of inheritance of the high and low responder traits suggests that the variation in response is due to genetic polymorphism at a single autosomal locus. However, the allele responsible for the low responder trait of the G-B1 line is not identical to the allele of the previously described Mr1 locus carried by the inbred low responder CC line, since (CC x G-B1 low responder)F1 birds are uniformly high responders to Con A.

Analysis of the alloimmune properties of a recombinant genotype in the major histocompatibility complex of the chicken.

In a population of (CB X CC)F1 X WB hybrids, a chicken was found with a presumably recombinant haplotype, BR1, whose antigenic products detectable by hemagglutination contained determinants derived from both parental haplotypes, i.e. B1 (from CB) and B2 (from CC).

Effect of propranolol on platelet function.

Excessive reactivity of blood platelets may contribute to atherosclerotic vascular disease. Hence drugs which alter platelet function may be protective. Prompted by findings that propranolol therapy normalized hyperactive platelet aggregation in patients with coronary artery disease, we studied propranolol in vitro to assess its action on platelets.