BCG, Corynebacterium parvum or Mycobacterium leprae added to cultures of BCG-primed mouse spleen cells cause an enhanced primary antibody response in vitro.

A few weeks after mice were injected i.v. with 10(8) live Mycobacterium bovis, BCG, the antibody response of their spleen cells to SRBC in vitro was comparable with the response of cells from untreated mice. Addition of BCG organisms to the culture vessels resulted in enhanced antibody-forming cell (AFC) responses by the primed cells but not by the cells from the untreated mice. No evidence was found for a direct stimulation of B cells and cell depletion experiments suggested macrophages were directly involved. BCG added to the cultures up to 68 h after they were set up, but not later, still caused enhancement. No enhancement was found when DNP-Ficoll was used as antigen. The ability to stimulate the anti-SRBC response was not restricted to the organism used for priming. Enhancement was also found if C. parvum or M. leprae were added to BCG-primed cells and if BCG was added to C. parvum-primed cells. The relevance of the results to the search for a leprosy vaccine is discussed.