The distribution and traffic of specific homocytotropic antibody-synthesizing cells in Nippostrongylus brasiliensis-infested rats. Comparison of synthesis with the kinetics of antibody and IgE levels in serum and lymph.

Synthesis of specific homocytotropic antibody by cells from various lymphoid and haemopoietic organs in rats infested with Nippostrongylus brasiliensis has been studied by use of homologous adoptive cutaneous anaphylaxis and compared with the kinetics of appearance in the serum and thoracic duct lymph of specific IgE antibodies. Using this technique, synthesis of specific mast cell-sensitizing antibody has been detected in the draining lymph nodes of the lung as early as 12 days after infestation and by 14 days in the draining lymph nodes of the small intestine. Specific IgE antibody was not detected in serum until between 16 and 18 days after infestation. The delay in detection of antibody in the serum is at least in part due to its rapid removal from the blood, because antibody en route to the bloodstream from the gut-associated lymphoid tissue was detected in the thoracic duct lymph plasma as early as day 12. A major traffic of homocytotropic antibody-secreting cells has been detected in the thoracic duct lymph of the infested rats. The results are discussed in terms of the possible role of immediate hypersensitivity in the expulsion of the parasite, the origin of the IgE antibody response to the parasite and the mechanism of the potentiated reagin response.