Regional immunologic responses following localized deposition of antigen in the lung.

This study evaluates the immune response in individual lung-associated lymph nodes of beagle dogs after immunization in specific lung lobes. A particulate antigen, sheep red blood cells (SRBC), was used for immunization. The numbers of anti-SRBC antibody-forming cells (AFC) in the tracheobronchial and in the mediastinal lymph nodes were determined 5 days after deposition of SRBC in the left or right apical or left or right diaphragmatic lung lobes. Results indicated that translocation of the SRBC antigen to these lymph nodes was basically ipsilateral because larger numbers of antigen-specific AFC were consistently found in lymph nodes from the same side of the lung that received SRBC immunization. Of 16 dogs immunized, only two did not show ipsilateral antigen stimulation of the lung-associated lymph nodes. This variance occurred only in a single lymph node in each dog. Although the SRBC antigen induced AFC predominantly in the ipsilateral lymph nodes, some AFC were also found in the contralateral lymph nodes. The largest numbers of AFC in the contralateral tracheobronchial lymph nodes were found after immunization in the right apical or right diaphragmatic lung lobes.