Viruses, Immunity, Immunodeficiency and Cancer

Abstract

This scientific meeting has been an impressive experience for me for a number of reasons. First, it reminded me that my being captured for a career in immunology occurred in a context of a chance discovery which related to an influence of an immunologic process on virus infection and vice versa. As a graduate student, I was using a Herpes simplex virus infection of the peripheral nerve and anterior horn cells to influence nerve impulse transmission over the two neurone-two axon reflex in rabbits. It was at this time in 1943 that Kolouch introduced me to the plasma cell as a possible antibody-producing cell. Kolouch had observed plasma cell accumulation in the marrow and spleen in a patient with subacute bacterial endocarditis. In subsequent experiments with rabbits he had seen that during anaphylaxis, after repeated intravenous antigenic stimulation, plasma cells accumulated also in the marrow and spleen. He had, thus, postulated that the appearance of plasma cells in marrow and spleen represents an adaptive response of antibody producing cells to antigen injection. But he was worried that the physiologic concomitants of anaphylaxis might be responsible for anaphylaxis. To clarify this issue, I proposed that we produce anaphylaxis by either to two means—passive or active anaphylaxis. When the actively immunized rabbits were given a secondary or challenging injection of antigen to produce anaphylactic shock, a massive proliferation of precursor cells and extraordinary development of plasma cells was launched in the bone marrow and spleen.

This chapter is based on the final presentation of the Symposium by the author on April 25, 1984.