Subject(s)
Adjuvants, Immunologic/administration & dosage , Arthritis, Juvenile/therapy , Peptides/administration & dosage , Thymus Extracts/administration & dosage , Adolescent , Antibody Formation/drug effects , Arthritis, Juvenile/immunology , Child , Child, Preschool , Chronic Disease , Combined Modality Therapy , Drug Evaluation , Humans , Immunity, Cellular/drug effects , Time FactorsABSTRACT
A new interspecific human and animal thymic antigen (AgT-1) was identified immunochemically. It was shown that AgT-1 is a protein with a molecular mass about 40000 dalton, electrophoretic mobility of alpha 1-globulins and isoelectric points 4.0 and 4.5. Heating of the protein to 80 degrees C led to the loss of its immunochemical activity. Antisera to AgT-1 were obtained by immunization of rabbits by conjugated extract of bovine thymus in complete Freund's adjuvant. AgT-1 was identified immunochemically in bovine embryonal thymus, spleen and liver. In addition to these organs, AgT-1 was discovered in lung extracts of adult animals. Identical antigen was identified in the embryonal thymus and extracts of human small intestine. AgT-1 antibodies inhibited the biological activity of the active thymic fraction (AFT-6) in recovering the sensitivity of spleen fRFC from thymectomized mice to the inhibitory action of azathioprin. The data indicate that the biological activity of AFT-6 is partly due to the molecules having antigenic determinants of AgT-1.
Subject(s)
Antigens/isolation & purification , Thymus Gland/immunology , Adult , Animals , Antigens/analysis , Antigens/immunology , Cattle , Chromatography, Ion Exchange , Electrophoresis, Agar Gel , Fetus/immunology , Humans , Immunization , Immunochemistry , Immunodiffusion , Isoelectric Point , Mice , Rabbits , Rosette Formation , Species Specificity , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Forty seven F1 (CBA X C57Bl) mice were used for quantitative morphologic examination of the thymus on 1, 5, 10 and 15 days after a single injection of 0.5 microgram T-activin, and injections of 0.1 microgram of T-activin once a day during 5 days. The number of transformed thymocytes and mitoses figures in cortex was found to be increased reaching a maximum at the 5th day as regards the magnitude and spreading. By the end of the research the number of transformed thymocytes and mitoses returned to initial values. There was a periodical (at the 5th and 10th days) 1 mm2 reduction in the number of thymocytes, an increase in the proportion of medullary thymocytes, reaching maximum at the 5th day, and a tendency towards the reduction of a relative area of the parenchyma. These indicators did not return to the initial values by the 15th days. However there was a tendency towards normalization. The conclusion is made about the stimulatory effect of T-activin on reproduction and migration of thymocytes.