Kinetics of extravasation and redistribution of IgA-specific antibody-containing cells in the intestine.

Double Thiry-Vella loops were prepared in rats, each locally immunized with a different antigen, and the kinetics of appearance in the loops of antibody-containing cells (ACC) specific for each antigen was recorded. The results confirm, under more rigorously controlled conditions, the conclusions of previous work that the initial appearance of IgA lymphoblasts in the intestinal lamina propria occurs independently of antigen. In addition, these findings are extended by demonstrating 1) that there is no specialized site within the intestinal lamina propria for ACC to enter the tissue; 2) that in immunized intestine, specific ACC progressively accumulate around the crypt regions; and 3) that a proportion of this specific accumulation can be accounted for by ACC proliferation within the lamina propria.