ADJUVANT ACTIONS OF POLYCLONAL LYMPHOCYTE ACTIVATORS .1. COMPARISON AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THEIR ACTIONS IN ANTIBODY-RESPONSE TO DEAGGREGATED BOVINE SERUM-ALBUMIN

Various polyclonal lymphocyte activators (PLA) were compared in their effects to trigger the initiation of the immune response and the amplification of the once-initiated immune response. When PLA were injected into mice subcutaneously together with deaggregated bovine serum albumin (DBSA), all of the nine kinds of PLA tested, such as capsular polysaccharide of Klebsiella pneumoniae (CPS-K), lipopolysaccharide, dextran sulfate, concanavalin A, pokeweed mitogen, phytohemagglutinin, polyadenylic-uridylic acid, and polyinosinic-cytidylic acid, exhibited more or less the adjuvant action to trigger the antibody response and to increase immunological memory to DBSA. Among the PLA tested the action of CPS-K was the strongest. On the other hand, none of these PLA, including CPS-K, acted to augment the secondary antibody response to the optimal dose of DBSA in mice primed with DBSA together with CPS-K. It was concluded that PLA act generally to trigger the initiation of the antibody response, although the intensity of their actions distributes in a wide range of diversity, but that they do not stimulate the amplification of the response. © 1979.