THREE CATEGORIES OF B CELL TOLERANCE INDUCED BY POLYSACCHARIDES: CHARACTERISTICS, INTERRELATIONSHIPS AND GENERAL IMPLICATIONS

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the characteristics, interrelationships, and general implications of three categories of B cell tolerance induced by polysaccharides. In an experiment presented in the chapter, the three principal polysaccharides characteristically produce IgM responses in the mouse strains studied, which have been measured by direct PFC assays using polysaccharide-sensitized sheep erythrocytes supplemented by passive hemagglutination titration of corresponding sera. An unexpected outcome of the experiment has been the predominant reversibility of B cell tolerance to SIII as compared with the irreversible nature of the levan counterpart, despite the similarly prolonged unresponsive states that both induce in the intact animal. The induction of B cell tolerance and its characteristics are influenced quite as much by the structure of a polysaccharide as by the dose of it used.