[Effect of therapy using the "receptor-destroying enzyme" of T and B cells on antibody production].

Being interested in knowing if there is any relation between the sialic acid present on the surface of the immunocyte and the antibody formation by the latter, an attempt was made to treat immunocytes, T and B, by RDE before their inoculation into irradiated mice. C57Bl mice of more than 8 weeks of age were used throughout. Cells derived from thymus and those from bone marrow were used as T- and B-cells, respectively. On intravenous injection into irradiated mice of syngeneic T and B cells associated with SRBC, if the T cells were treated by RDE beforehand, the antibody production, as expressed in number of PFC/spleen, was remarkably suppressed when compared with that of mice inoculated with normal cells. It was not the case with the B cells. These facts would permit us to suppose that the sialic acid present on the surface of T cell has an intimate relation with the recognition of antigen by this cell, or else, with the mechanism of transmission of antigenic informations from T cell to B cell.