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Mice thymectomized as adults and injected with polyvinylpyrrolidone, a thymus‐independent antigen, demonstrated significantly enhanced antibody responses compared to sham‐thymectomized controls when immunized as early as three weeks after thymectomy. Increasing the interval between thymectomy and immunization, even up to seven months, did not significantly increase the extent of this enhancement, suggesting the effect may be caused by the removal of a short‐lived subpopulation of “inhibitory” thymus‐derived cells. Mice immunized to sheep, rat or goose erythrocytes (GRBC) four months after adult thymectomy showed significantly suppressed hemagglutinin responses only to GRBC, indicating that suppressive effects relatively early after adult thymectomy can be attained provided a marked thymus‐dependent antigen such as GRBC is used as test antigen.
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Kerbel et al. (1972) studied this question.
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