Adoptive transfer of small bowel intraepithelial and Peyer's patch lymphocytes from orally immunised animals: effects on the antibody response to parenteral antigen.

Intraepithelial (IEL) and Peyer's patch lymphocytes (PPL) were isolated from the small bowel mucosa of mice in which specific systemic antibody responses to ovalbumin (OVA) had been suppressed by oral exposure to that antigen. These lymphocytes were then adoptively transferred into syngeneic animals. The PPL transferred 24 h after oral OVA showed a tendency to depress secondary serum antibody responses to intraperitoneal OVA in the recipients. Conversely, IEL transferred 1-5 days after oral OVA significantly enhanced specific serum antibody responses.