Mitogenic responses of the head-associated lymphoid tissues of the chicken.

A blastogenesis microassay employing 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) was adapted to measure blastogenic responses of lymphocytes from the chicken's head-associated lymphoid tissues (i.e., the harderian gland and conjunctiva-associated lymphoid tissue) to T- and B-cell mitogens. Lymphocytes isolated from peripheral blood, spleen, and the harderian gland had highly significant (P < 0.01) responses to T- and B-cell mitogens compared with control lymphocytes cultured without mitogens. Cultured lymphocytes obtained from the harderian gland had highly significant mitogenic responses to the T-cell mitogen concanavalin A (25 to 100 micrograms/ml) and to the B-cell mitogen Salmonella typhimurium lipopolysaccharide (1.25 to 5.0 micrograms/ml) compared with the control lymphocytes. Mitogenic responses of cultured lymphocytes obtained from the conjunctiva-associated lymphoid tissue could not be measured within the given parameters of the blastogenesis microassay. This was primarily due to the low yield of lymphocytes, which proved to be a limiting factor. The ability of the MTT blastogenesis microassay to detect blastogenic responses of the harderian gland to mitogens may be indicative of its usefulness for measuring cell-mediated immunity responses to other antigens.