Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2012;75(6):319-23. doi: 10.1080/15287394.2012.668163.
Given evidence that the immune system is sensitive to environmental contaminants, evaluating immunocompetence in toxicology studies is increasingly important. By incorporating a test of humoral response into controlled reproductive and developmental studies, more comprehensive results can be gathered to assess the potential for disease. The foreign red blood cells (RBC) challenge is a minimally invasive method for evaluating humoral responses to a foreign antigen. Typically, antibody response is assessed following injections of sheep erythrocytes; however, Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) are only minimally sensitive to sheep RBC. In the present study, adult Japanese quail were treated with 5% solutions of RBC from goose, goat, cow, donkey, or pig in primary and secondary challenges. After each treatment, plasma samples were taken and antibody responses were measured for total immunoglobulins (Ig), IgG, and IgM. Overall, goose RBC generated the poorest responses in both primary and secondary challenges, while the strongest antibody responses were to pig and donkey RBC. Therefore, pig RBC appear to be a superior antigen for testing humoral response in Japanese quail.
鉴于免疫系统对外界污染物敏感的证据，在毒理学研究中评估免疫能力变得越来越重要。通过将体液反应测试纳入受控生殖和发育研究中，可以收集更全面的结果，以评估疾病的潜在风险。异种红细胞（RBC）挑战是评估对异种抗原的体液反应的一种微创方法。通常，在注射绵羊红细胞后评估抗体反应；然而，日本鹌鹑（Coturnix japonica）对绵羊 RBC 的敏感性很低。在本研究中，成年日本鹌鹑在原发性和继发性挑战中用 5%的鹅、山羊、牛、驴或猪 RBC 溶液处理。每次处理后，采集血浆样本并测量总免疫球蛋白（Ig）、IgG 和 IgM 的抗体反应。总体而言，鹅 RBC 在原发性和继发性挑战中产生的反应最差，而对猪和驴 RBC 的抗体反应最强。因此，猪 RBC 似乎是测试日本鹌鹑体液反应的更好抗原。
