Symposium: BASIC MECHANISMS IN ALLERGIC DISEASES

This review will describe certain developments which have appeared recently in the immunologic literature involving the transfer of viable cells from one animal to another. In 1940 Landsteiner and Chase showed that it was possible to remove cellular exudates from guinea pigs sensitized with simple chemical compounds, wash these cells and transfer them to fresh guinea pigs and then to demonstrate in the recipient guinea pigs dermal sensitivity to the original compound. More recently, Dr. Merrill Chase sensitized guinea pigs with o-chlorobenzoyl chloride: paraffin oil had been injected intraperitoneally into these animals 48 hours before, in order to induce the necessary cellular accumulation. These cells were collected, washed and injected into a recipient guinea pig, which thereupon developed a positive reaction to the allergen. Similar experiments were done with cells secured from lymph nodes of sensitized guinea pigs and in the case of heat-killed tubercle bacilli suspended in hydrocarbon as antigen. The same phenomenon has been demonstrated by Metaxas with intradermally injected cells, and by Lawrence in the human species with leucocytes collected from blood and injected intradermally. Tissue reactions of the immediate type of hypersensitivity have also been demonstrated by Chase as a function of transferred cells by the use of the Schultz-Dale technic, as well as by an adaptation of the PK type of reaction to the measurement of classical antibodies. It was felt in our laboratory that this type of approach might provide more direct information on the mechanism of antibody formation in the cells involved. Accordingly, a study of such cells was undertaken, using largely bacterial cells as antigens and measuring the agglutinins produced thereto.