Effect of some Metabolic Inhibitors on Antibody Formation

Abstract

RECENTLY the use of metabolic inhibitors, particularly analogues of nucleic acid components, has been proving an effective tool for investigating the processes involved in antibody formation^1–8. The direct determination of the metabolic changes attendant on these processes is practically impossible at the present stage. After the first immunizing dose, only a very small proportion (about 1 per cent) of the lymphoid cells isolated from the spleen or the lymph nodes is active in antibody formation. The detection of any biochemical changes in these cells is made exceedingly difficult not only by the large ‘background’ of inactive cells (99 per cent) but also by the absence of serologically demonstrable antibody from the active cells in the initial (inductive) phase. Earlier I showed that the nucleic acid antimetabolite 6-mercaptopurine acts only during this inductive phase, but does not affect antibody production if administered during the productive phase⁹. If, then, antibody formation is inhibited by means of suitable agents without affecting protein synthesis in general, we may with some degree of plausibility draw conclusions about the processes taking place in the inductive phase.