Factors Involved in the Classical Conditioning of Antibody Responses in Mice

There is a great deal of evidence to support the contention that the immune response in mammals to foreign antigens is exquisitely regulated by the immune system itself, and by factors produced by cells associated directly or indirectly with the effects of immune stimulation (1). Amongst the former we could consider the intricacies of a network model for immunoregulation (2), while amongst the latter for instance one could cite evidence for an effect of hormones, interleukins and products of arachidonic acid metabolism on immune responses (3–5), We (6) and others (7–11) have been interested, at the whole organism level, for any evidence which would support the notion that during immunomodulation, an organism can make some form of an association between non-antigenic environmental cues (a conditioned stimulus, CS) and a physiological stimulus known to perturb the immune system in a predictable way (an unconditioned stimulus, US). Thereafter presentation of the CS alone might then produce a physiological response (a conditioned response, CR) analogous to that initially evoked by the US itself (an unconditioned response, UR).