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The majority of “natural” immunoglobulin‐secreting cells are short‐lived and the progeny of cycling lymphocytes
Author(s) -
Lévy Martine,
Vieira Paulo,
Coutinho António,
Freitas António
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
european journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.272
H-Index - 201
eISSN - 1521-4141
pISSN - 0014-2980
DOI - 10.1002/eji.1830170618
Subject(s) - biology , antibody , spleen , population , bone marrow , cycling , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , environmental health , history , archaeology
Abstract Treatment of mice with hydroxyurea to selectively kill all cycling cells has been used to study population dynamics and life expectancy of “natural” immunoglobulin‐secreting cells in the bone marrow and spleen of nonimmunized animals. The results show that 50 to 90% of those cells are eliminated 2 to 3 days after one cycle of hydroxyurea administration, demonstrating their recent origin from cycling precursors. Using a protocol of long‐term hydroxyurea treatment which abrogates cell production from the cycling precursors compartments, it was shown that “natural” immunoglobulin‐secreting cells have a very short half renewal time, in the range of 15–60 h.