1 The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (Division of Immunology), Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania.
STUDIES on the site of formation of antibodies have been in progress in this laboratory for some time. The investigations to be reviewed here are those conducted in recent years using the technic of cell transfer. These studies followed an earlier series in which the experimental approach involved the injection of particulate antigenic material into the tissues of rabbits and the examination of tissues and fluids of the lymphatic system for antibodies to the antigen injected.
It had been observed that when antigens were injected into the hind foot pads of rabbits, homologous antibodies could be found in whole tissue extracts of the draining lymph nodes at titers which might, in the early days of the antibody response, exceed the concentration of the antibody found in the blood serum at the same time. These findings were in agreement with those of McMaster et al. In the case of pooled mouse lymph nodes regional to sites of injection of antigens. It was also shown in this earlier series of studies that antibody could be found in lymph obtained from the efferent lymphatic vessel of lymph nodes draining sites of injection of antigens and, furthermore, within the lymph in higher concentration in extracts of the cells of the lymph than in the lymph plasma.
In this work antibodies were being measured in extracts of lymphatic tissue. The experimental situation was complicated by the fact that the lymphatic system is one which is spread throughout the body and of which each unit (spleen, lymph nodes) consists of 2 major portions each of which, in turn, contains several species of cells.