Impaired antibody response of C57BL/6 beige mutant mice to a thymus-independent type 2 antigen.

The murine equivalent of the human Chediak-Higashi Syndrome is the beige (bg) mutant in the C57BL/6 (B6) background. Besides the well-known lack of natural killer (NK) activity in bg-homozygous mice, functional abnormalities of T cells, macrophages and various granulocytes have been reported. With the exception of one study indicating a decreased in vitro response to lipopolysaccharide, there is no report concerning the B cell compartment of the beige mutant. The in vivo anti-trinitrophenyl antibody response to a TI-2 antigen (TNP-Ficoll) was found here to be significantly lower in B6 beige than in B6 wild mice, although both strains responded similarly to an analogous TD antigen (TNP-ovalbumin). Since the marginal zone macrophages of the spleen were previously shown to be essential for the initiation of antibody responses to TI-2 antigens, they might be another target of the beige mutation.