CELL-MEDIATED CYTOTOXICITY AND HUMORAL IMMUNE-RESPONSE IN ASCORBIC ACID-DEFICIENT GUINEA-PIGS

Guinea pigs were divided into three dietary groups: ascorbic-acid deficient, pairfed, and ad libitum control. Two weeks later guinea pigs were immunized intradermally with 5 x 108 chicken erythrocytes in Freund's complete adjuvant. Hemagglutinating antibody titers to chicken erythrocytes 2 weeks after immunization were comparable in all three dietary groups. In vitro 51Cr release from labeled chicken erythrocyte target cells incubated with lymphoid cells from spleens of ascorbic acid-deficient guinea pigs was significantly less than with spleen cells from pairfed and ad libitum control guinea pigs. The percentage of splenic lymphoid cells that formed rosettes with rabbit erythrocytes, a T cell marker, was the same in all three dietary groups. The defect of ascorbic acid deficiency may reflect an impairment of T lymphocyte function in cell-mediated cytotoxicity or a change in number or function of another cell type.