A role for the spleen in the appearance of IgM in the bile of rats injected intravenously with horse erythrocytes.

The i.v. injection of the particulate antigens horse red blood cells (HRBC) and Salmonella enteritidis into rats results in the appearance of high levels of IgM agglutinating antibody in the serum and bile. This is in contrast to the appearance of specific IgA antibodies in bile after the injection of antigen into the Peyer's patches. At the height of the response, a fivefold to 10-fold increase in total IgM was found in bile, whereas there was no increase in IgA or in total protein levels. The biliary IgM was not associated with secretory component. Studies aimed at revealing the source of the IgM showed that neither immunized nor nonimmunized rats were able to transport 131I-rat IgM, but both groups were equally efficient at transporting 125I-rat IgA. Furthermore, specific anti-HRBC antibody could not be detected in the bile of rats that were injected with a high titer serum, indicating that blood is unlikely to be the source. Splenectomy of rats at the time of the injection of antigen, at 3 days after immunization had abrogated the biliary response, and at 5 days resulted in rapid decline in existing specific antibody level. Involvement of the spleen was additionally implicated when it was shown that injection of animals with immune spleen cells gave rise to specific antibodies in serum and bile. On the basis of these experiments, it is proposed that antigen entering the blood stream can stimulate a population of cells in the spleen that emigrates to the liver, where the cells localize and secrete IgM into bile.