Lymphocyte transformation in inbred guinea pigs infected with Treponema pallidum nichols.

T lymphocytes were purified from peritoneal exudates from young male, inbred strain 2 guinea pigs infected with 8 X 10(7) Treponema pallidum Nichols and from control animals injected with normal rabbit testes extract. Groups of animals were sacrificed after 15, 30, 60, and 90 days of infection, and the cells were analyzed for their proliferative response to concanavalin A and phytohemagglutinin and to sonicated T. pallidum, Treponema phagedenis biotype Reiter, and normal rabbit testes extract. No significant differences were observed in the responses to mitogens. Cells from infected but not from control animals responded with significant proliferation to T. pallidum antigen, but neither infected nor control cells reacted to T. phagedenis Reiter antigen. Although cells from both infected and control animals responded to normal rabbit testes extract, this response in the infected animals was transient and much lower than the response to T. pallidum antigen.