Surface Immunoglobulins of Circulating Lymphocytes in Mouse Plasmacytoma III. The Effect of Plasmacytoma RNA on the Immune Response

Abstract

RNA extracted from several plasmacytomas of BALB/c mice was previously shown in in vitro and in vivo experiments to induce the synthesis of receptors on B cells with The immunochemical characteristics of the respective plasmacytoma globulin. These findings were also produced with immuno-globulin-free RNA extracted from the plasma of plasmacytoma animals. The results of the present study indicate that the injection of 0.5–1 mg of RNA into CF₁ mice also has an inhibiting effect on the primary response to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) as measured by agglutinin titers and plaque forming cells. On the other hand, RNA injected prior to the second injection of SRBC did not inhibit the secondary response. RNA from normal tissue and RNase-inactivated RNA were ineffective. These findings suggest that an RNA fraction of the plasmacytoma participates in the mediation of the characteristic impairment of the primary immune response in myeloma.