ABSTRACT
My colleagues and I have spent the last 20 years or so studying the effects of antigen and, more recently, idiotype in modulating the immune response of mouse lymphocytes. We are greatly interested in the specificity of the interaction of the myriad types of receptors with their inducing ligands, and we have examined the specificity of many different lymphoid populations. In considering the issue of the interrelationship of hormones, aging, and the immune response, I would offer that our outlook has been excessively narrow in examining our particular tree in the forest. For example, we students of specific suppression of the response by antigen are quite happy with 50% to 75% reductions in our responses. It came as a shock to me to realize that half of the people in the world can make twice as high an antibody level as I can; that is, the female half. When it is realized that males live for a shorter time, when I ponder the evidence showing the low blood level of thymic hormones in a person of my age, it could really get very depressing. However, one mustn't feel sorry for oneself because that too undoubtedly has a profound effect on our immune system!
