Abstract
Summary
Thoracic duct lymphocytes from male rats with delayed sensitivity to PPD were cultured together with lymphocytes from syngeneic unsensitized female rats. The addition of PPD to the cultures caused a significant increase in mitotic activity of roughly equal magnitude in both sensitized and unsensitized cells. Assuming a clonal organization of the immunological memory, these observations make possible that most cells dividing in response to antigen stimulation are not committed cells [i.e., members of the stimulated clone] but ldquo;recruited” uncommitted cells, thus lowering the concentration of the clone in the population of lymphoid cells.
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