| Abstract: | Mouse spleen cells in diffusion chambers were studied in an effort to assess the radiation survival curves of lymphoid cells during the different serological phases of immune response and to characterize morphologically and metabolically these radiation-resistant cells. The results showed that the capacity of immunocompetent progenitor cells to proliferate and differentiate into antibody-synthesizing cells was highly sensitive to x-irradiation. Their fully differentiated progenies, which were made up mainly of mature plasma cells, were resistant in that they were able to synthesize antibody effectively for as long as several days after their exposure to radiation doses up to 10,000 R. As a result of these studies, a method with a high recovery yield was devised for obtaining a highly purified preparation of dispersed monospecific antibody-synthesizing cells. This was done by simply exposing primed spleen cells to 10,000 R at the end of the log phase of response and harvesting the culture several days later. |
