Phagocytic activity of the reticulohistiocyte system in rabbits after splenectomy and activation with ink.

The survival rate was measured of differently aged rabbit erythrocytes that had been taken from young animals, tagged with 51Cr and injected into young and old animals. The recipient animals had either been splenectomized, or had an ink-activated reticulohistiocyte system, or both. In young as well as in old ink-treated animals the injected cells lived for a much shorter time than in the non-treated animals. In splenectomized animals the red blood cells lived a little longer than those in the control group. In animals which had been both splenectomized and ink-treated the 51Cr-tagged cells again lived for a shorter time than those in the control group, but longer than in the ink-treated animals.