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T L Feldbush

Publications and source records attributed to T L Feldbush.

51 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

A study of maternal lymphoid organs and the progeny following treatment with immunomodulating agents during pregnancy.

Whether differences in foetoplacental weight and post-implantation mortality in rodents are secondary to heterosis and inbreeding depression or antigenic differences between mother and foetus has been a continuing controversy. To determine whether non-specific depression or stimulation of the maternal immune system affects the success of the foetoplacental allograft, groups of virgin Fischer (Ag-B1) females of similar age and weight mated with DA (Ag-B4) males were treated with daily intraperitoneal injections of: (a) saline, (b) methylprednisolone (MP), 1-0 mg/kg, (c) cyclophosphamide (CY), 3.0 mg/kg, or (d) azathioprine (AZ), 3.0 mg/kg; or they were injected intraperitoneally on the fifth day of gestation with: (a) B. pertussis, 1.0 ml, (b) C. parvum, 0.2 ml, or (c) BCG, 0.1 ml. None of the immunostimulating agents were detrimental to the progeny, but the immunosupprissive drugs caused an increased percentage of foetal deaths and foetoplacental growth retardation. The reduced foetal and placental size induced by CY or AZ could be partially blocked by simultaneous maternal treatment with BCG. Analysis of mean maternal weight gain, spleen weight assays, changes in the lymph nodes draining the uterus and comparison of data from non-pregnant animals and syngeneic pregnancies treated with these agents suggest that immunosuppressive drugs reduce foetal survival rates and produce foetoplacental growth retardation via a combination of immunological and cytotoxic mechanisms.

Adjuvants, Immunologic↗

Serum immunoglobulins in genitourinary malignancies.

Serum concentrations of immunoglobulins G, A and M (IgG, Ig A and IgM) were measured by immunodiffusion in a control population of 58 patients and in 165 patients with cancer of the prostate, bladder, kidney or testis. Tumor patients were ranked according to clinical staging. In a smaller group of patients serum levels of IgE were measured by radioimmunoassay. IgG, IgA and IgM concentrations did not correlate with staging or the presence of malignancy. However, a statistically significant correlation between increased IgE levels and advanced bladder cancer (staged D1 and D2) stimulated us to study more patients with bladder tumors. In a subsequent group of 22 bladder tumor patients this trend could not be reproduced. IgE levels did not correlate with a history of allergy in any of the patients tested. Concentrations of immunoglobulins G, A, M and E seem to be unchanged in genitourinary malignancies, although their functional role here has not been assessed qualitatively.

Female↗

Antigen modulation of the immune response. The effect of delayed challenge on the affinity of anti-dinitrophenylated bovine gamma globulin antibody produced in adoptive recipients.

Secondary immune responsiveness to dinitrophenylated bovine gamma globulin (DNP-BGG) was transferred to heavily irradiated rats by means of small lymphocytes from the thoracic duct of immunized syngeneic donors. Affinity of the antibody produced by the adoptive recipients when challenged immediately was the same as that seen in immunized controls and cell donors, suggesting that the performance of lymphocytes in the thoracic duct of immunized rats provide an accurate measure of the immunologic history of memory cells both in the intact animal and the lymphocyte-depleted donor. The relevance of this to cell cooperation in the production of antibody to hapten-protein complexes is discussed. Direct evidence on antigen modulation of the immune response was also obtained. When immune thoracic duct lymphocytes were transferred to adoptive recipients and challenged either immediately or after a delay of 6 wk, it was found that, although the amount of antibody decreased with this delay in challenge, the affinity remained constant. Thus it would seem that in control rats, the increase in the affinity of antibody with time after immunization is, in fact, due to the selection of new populations of cells by the progressively waning concentration of antigen.

Animals↗