Synthesis and secretion of immunoglobulin G by lymphocytes from cultured mouse spleen cells is not affected by heat shock.

Short-term hyperthermic episodes (in vivo and in vitro) alter gene expression in mammalian lymphocytes, resulting in the enhanced synthesis of a select group of polypeptides--the heat-shock proteins--and the depressed synthesis of many normally synthesized polypeptides. Such alterations could have profound implications to an individual if the appropriate functioning of lymphocytes within the immune response was compromised by a depression in immunoglobulin synthesis during naturally occurring periods of hyperthermia, such as fever. In the present study we asked if heat-shock affects the facultative synthesis and secretion of immunoglobulin G by cultured mouse lymphocytes. We found that the quantity of immunoglobulin G synthesized and secreted by these cells is not affected by heat-shock treatments sufficient to induce the synthesis of heat-shock proteins.