Lesions of the hippocampus enhance or depress humoral immunity in rats.
The effect on the humoral immune response in rats by bilaterally destroying cell bodies in the hippocampus with kainic acid or by electrolytic lesion was studied. After 3 days a humoral immune response was evoked by injecting 1 ml of 10% sheep red blood cells. Five days later, the haemolysin content (MC50) was measured. Chemical destruction of pyramidal cell bodies in CA2 and CA3 significantly increased humoral immunity as measured by HC50, but larger chemical lesions that also included CA1 did not. Electrical destruction of cell bodies and axonal pathways in CA2 and CA3 did not significantly affect HC50. These results suggest that different areas of the hippocampus can stimulate or inhibit humoral immunity.