Strikingly different effects of dinitrobenzene sulfonic and trinitrobenzene sulfonic acids on various subpopulations of murine lymphoid cells.

Different changes according to T- or B-cell origin occur in dinitrophenyl (DNP)- and trinitrophenyl (TNP)-modified lymphoid cells. The electrophoretic mobility (EPM) or nylon-wool adherent splenic cells (B cell-enriched) modified by TNP and DNP and that of nylon-wool non-adherent splenic cells (T cell-enriched) and thymic cells modified by TNP increase respectively as follows: +24%, +20%, + 6%, and +16%. A relation has been found between these EPM amounts and amino groups which are positively charged on cell surface. The EPM decreases in the case of nylon-wool non-adherent splenic cells (T cell-enriched, -9%) and thymic cells modified by DNP (-4%). The hydrophobic fluorescent probe 1-anilino-8-naphthalene sulphonate used to study conformational changes of cells revealed a slight fluorescence decrease for TNP-modified cells (-11% for thymic cells, -38% for T cells of spleen, and -66% for B cells of spleen), and a fluorescence increase for DNP-modified cells. This fluorescence increase is more important for spleen T cells (+130%) and thymic cells (+233%) than for spleen B cells (+30%).