Rabbit antimouse lymphocyte sera (ALS) or antithymocyte sera (ATS) were produced utilizing various lymphoid cell doses in a standard immunization protocol. Sera were assayed in vivo for ability to prolong survival of skin allografts and to suppress antibody formation to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) or bovine serum albumin (BSA). The immunosuppressive potency of ALS produced with increasing doses of lymph node cells did not increase significantly, although the content of irrelevant antibody to mouse erythrocytes and serum proteins did increase. In contrast, large immunizing doses of thymocytes produced significantly more potent sera than low doses of thymocytes with only minimal increase in content of irrelevant antibody.
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Gozzo et al. (1972) studied this question.