Changes in the free and membrane-bound ribosomes in maternal rat liver during starvation.

Free and membrane-bound ribosomal ribonucleic acid (RNA) from maternal rat liver was measured in virgin rats and in variously dated pregnant animals that were either fed or starved for one to four days. The total amounts of free and membrane-bound ribosomal RNA differed between pregnant and nonpregnant rats, but the free ribosomal RNA progressively decreased only in the nonpregnant animals. A similar conservation of membrane-bound ribosomal RNA was observed with starvation among the pregnant rats except for the very early dated pregnant rats. Radioisotope labeling experiments using 3H-labeled orotic acid demonstrated a slower increase in specific activity among fed rats, irrespective of pregnancy state. However, metabolic and physiologic changes associated with pregnancy imposed additional complicating factors to the study.

The immune response and the eye. III. Anterior chamber-associated immune deviation can be adoptively transferred by serum.

After the anterior chamber (AC) injection of trinitrophenol-coupled (TNP) spleen cells, it is observed that systemic delayed-type hypersensitivity responses to TNP are inhibited by Ag-specific suppressor T cells. We recently reported that suppression is initiated by viable TNP-coupled T cells within the inoculum and upon further analysis we found that these cells have the surface phenotype of CD4+ Ts inducer cells. We report here that treatment of these TNP-T cells with cycloheximide or cytochalasin-B before to AC injection abolishes suppression, whereas treatment with 2000 rad radiation does not. This indicates that protein synthesis and secretion are required to initiate suppression but proliferation is not. Further, we demonstrate the adoptive transfer of suppression by serum of AC inoculated animals. Detection of the component in serum in adoptive transfer assays, however, requires removal of the spleen before AC injection. We establish that the material in serum is a Ts cell product (T suppressor-inducer factor) based on three criteria: it is Ag specific, genetically restricted, and reactive with a mAb that specifically identifies these molecules. These results suggest that the signal leaving the eye to induce suppression of delayed-type hypersensitivity is T cell derived and that molecules mediating immune regulation for this organ are made within the eye and transported via the serum to the spleen.

Regulation of the systemic immune response by visible light and the eye.

The injection of certain antigens into the anterior chamber (AC) of the eye results in the induction of antigen-specific suppressor T cells (Ts cells), which inhibit systemic delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH). We have previously shown that down-regulation by Ts cells after AC injection with 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP)-coupled spleen cells (TNP-Spl) is initiated by the intraocular activation of Ts inducer cells. These cells activate T suppressor-effector cells in the spleen that are responsible for suppressed DTH. With dark- and light-reared mice (Balb/c), we show that visible light has a direct effect on the intraocular T cell reaction that leads to systemic suppression. Our results show that if light is prevented from reaching the eye by dark rearing, by placing light-reared animals in the dark after AC injection, or by closing the eyelids of light-reared animals after AC injection, Ts cells are not activated. We show that light is responsible for establishing conditions in the eye that cause the preferential activation of Ts cells. The intraocular conditions established by light are not developmentally mandated as is visual development, but can be eliminated in adult light-reared animals by placing them in the dark for 18 h after AC injection. These conditions can also be induced in adult dark-reared animals by returning them to the light for just over 24 h before AC injection. These studies have important implications for understanding intraocular immune responses and possibly for the treatment of eye disease.