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Effect of ß-3-Thienylalanine on Antibody Synthesis V. Immunosuppression in Mice by Short Diet and Drug Treatments

^a Department of Pathology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27103

ABSTRACT

The analogue of phenylalanine, ß-3-thienylalanine, depresses severely the primary and secondary immune response to sheep erythrocytes in mice when administered for a few days immediately before and after each injection of antigen. For this immunosuppression to occur, animals must be maintained on a phenylalanine-free diet during the times of drug injection since dietary phenylalanine will restore anamnestic response. With these experimental conditions, the number of direct and indirect plaque-forming cells is greatly reduced during immune responses. The finding that marked immunosuppression can be obtained with a very short drug and diet treatment points to a potential usefullness of the analogue as a powerful immunosuppressant.

¹ Permanent address: Istituto di Microbiologia, Universita di Messina, 98100 Messina, Italy.