Cellular specificity of plasmacytoma-induced immunosuppression.

The pattern of immunodeficiency in plasmacytoma-bearing mice appears to be unique. Mice bearing these tumors exhibit a severe impairment in their ability to mount a primary immune response to thymus-dependent and -independent antigens. However, cell-mediated immune functions in these mice apparently remain intact. Thus, when T cell activity of lymph node cells from plasmacytoma-bearing mice was tested in vivo by sensitization with dinitrofluorobenzene and in vitro by responsiveness to phytohemmagglutinin, allogeneic cells, and dinitrobenzene sulfonate, cell-mediated immunity was found to be normal.