ABSTRACT
The nude mouse is by no means a B mouse, even if the surprisingly high proportion of non-B cells occurs only in the spleen, and the blood and lymph appear to carry almost pure B cells. The deep depression of responses to thymus-dependent antigens, of some immunoglobulin isotypes, of memory and tolerance induction was explainable by the lack of T-cell regulation as a dominant trait of nude mouse B cells and thus, most interpretations were centered on athymic state and not at more basic, prethymic defects which would be reflected also by B cells. In lymphatic tissues and in circulation, the nude mouse B cells seem to be numerically about equal to B cells of euthymic mice, just stripped of the bulk of the T-cell population. Under the assumption that antigen load leads in the absence of adequate T-cell help to specific unresponsiveness, nude mice have been injected with thymus-dependent antigens, notably sheep red blood cells or xenogenic a globulins.
