Premium
Low Responsiveness of Human Neonatal Lymphocytes to a B‐Cell Mitogen, Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I (SpA CoI)
Author(s) -
Kasahara Tadashi,
Harada Hirotomo,
ShioiriNakano Kohei,
Itoh Yoshihisa,
Kawai Tadashi,
Hida Keita
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
microbiology and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1348-0421
pISSN - 0385-5600
DOI - 10.1111/j.1348-0421.1980.tb02922.x
Subject(s) - staphylococcus aureus , concanavalin a , pokeweed mitogen , umbilical cord , immunology , biology , b cell , t cell , mitogen activated protein kinase , lymphocyte , microbiology and biotechnology , antibody , immune system , in vitro , bacteria , biochemistry , signal transduction , genetics
Responses of neonatal and adult lymphocytes to various mitogens were studied. Lymphocytes from umbilical cord blood (UCB) responded well to both phytohemagglutinin and concanavalin A, and also to pokeweed mitogen and Staphylococcus aureus Protein A. The responses of UCB lymphocytes to these mitogens were not significantly lower than those of adult peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). In contrast, UCB lymphocytes showed only a minimal response to killed Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I (SpA CoI), a potent B‐cell mitogen for human PBL, although the proportion of B cells in UCB was not less than that in PBL. The low level of response of lymphocytes from UCB to SpA CoI was not ascribed to differences in dose response or kinetics. Purified B cells from UCB were not stimulated by SpA CoI either, suggesting that the low responsiveness was not due to the suppressive effect of T cells or macrophages, but to some intrinsic defect in B cells in UCB. These results suggest that the B cells in neonates may be more immature than the T cells.