Pulmonary immune effector cells: II. Antigen-specific blastogenic responsiveness of lymphocyte populations during pulmonary immune complex disease in guinea pigs.

A guinea pig pulmonary immune complex disease was used to evaluate local antigen (ovalbumin)-specific lymphoproliferative responses in lung tissue, bronchoalveolar spaces, and hilar lymph nodes (HLN) at various time intervals after challenge. The responses of lung tissue and bronchoalveolar lymphocytes appear to be mediated by T cells, whereas the response of HLN lymphocytes was mediated by B and/or T cells, depending on the stage of the disease. The blastogenic response of HLN lymphocytes to concanavalin A was much greater than that observed in lung tissue or bronchoalveolar lymphocyte preparations, even after the removal of adherent cells, suggesting a possible inherent difference between these cell populations in their response to mitogen. This study demonstrates that lung tissue, bronchoalveolar, and HLN lymphocytes are not only capable of responding blastogenically to specific antigen, but that this responsiveness varies throughout the course of the disease. The lymphoproliferative responses and concurrent changes in the proportion of pulmonary immune effector cells are discussed in relation to cellular immunoregulation during the in vivo progression of this pulmonary immune complex disease.