The Study Of Tetanus Toxoid-Specific Transfer Factor

The studies dealing with transfer factor(TF) as an immunoregulator have been taken for over 30 years.Two aspects of the problem that play key roles in this field.these are 1).the molecular structure of this factor,and 2).its action mechanism in immunity reaction.More recent agreement on the characterization of the substance which appeared to be in charge of the transference of the antigen-specific immunity has helped considerably ..But the evidence has not been enough to clarify the nature and structure of TF up to now. The action mode of TF also was unknown.The present study intented to determine the activity of the antigen-specific iramunoregulation of tetanus toxoid(T.TOX)-specific TF and to isolate the component of causing the function in the TF. Meanwhile,the nature of this component was clarified. The action mechanism of TF was discussed on the basis of observing the regulatory function of TF on the gene expression of IL-2 in murine spleen ceils.The TF was prepared from the spleen cells of the . mice immunized with T.TOX. It was called TF-T.TOX. It was found that some biological activities were showed- by this preparation:1). Augmented the leukocyte adherence inhibition(LAI) reaction to T.TOX of murine spleen cells in vitro. This function was antigen-dependent 2). induced the foot DTH reaction to T.TOX in non-immunized mice;3). neutralized tetanus toxin in vitro. The death time of the mice injected such toxin was delayed of 3 days.These results suggested that the -T.TOX-immune reaction could be transfered to non-immunized recipients by TF-T.TOX.The antigen-specific component(s) of TF-T.TOX was isolated with the Sepharose4B linked with T.TOX (Sepha-rose4B-TT). It was confirmed that the fraction in TF-T.TOX which bound to the Sepharose4B-TT could be elated. by gly-HCl (pH2.6) at 4℃. It was called sTFc-T.TOX. The fraction had not been found in TF from the non-immunized mice. The LAI reaction of murine spleen cells to T.TOX could be augmented by this fraction in Vitro. The action also was antigen — dependent Moreover, ac-cordding to the amount of peptide in TF-T.TOX and sTFc-T. TOX , the specificity activity of the component wasincreased by 800 times.