Polyclonal B cell anergy induced by bacterial lipopolysaccharide and cyclophosphamide.

Tolerogenic treatment of mice by successive injections of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from E. coli or S. marcescens and cyclophosphamide (CY) decreased both the specific and polyclonal responses to tolerogen and to irrelevant LPS from Br. abortus as well as the specific immune response to sheep red blood cells. Splenocytes of tolerant mice were unresponsive to polyclonal challenge when transferred to irradiated syngeneic recipients. Spleen cells or blood serum from tolerant mice did not suppress the polyclonal response of intact mice to LPS. Possible reasons for the polyclonal B cell anergy were analyzed.