Blast cells transfer experimental hypersensitivity pneumonitis in guinea pigs

We previously demonstrated that experimental hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) can be transferred by lymph node cells (LNC) cultured in vitro with antigen. The purpose of this study was to identify the cells responsible for transfer and to determine if pulmonary cells can transfer HP. We cultured LNC from sensitized Strain 2 guinea pigs with a soluble extract of Micropolyspora faeni for 72 h, separated lymphoblasts from small lymphocytes, and transferred both subpopulations intravenously to syngeneic recipients. We also transferred irradiated lymphoblasts (1,500 rads), macrophage-depleted, lymphoblast-enriched populations, and pulmonary cells either without culture or after culture with M. faeni. Control animals received an equal volume of medium. All recipient animals were challenged intratracheally (i.t.) with M. faeni 48 h after the cell transfer, and they were killed 4 days after i.t. challenge. Randomly selected microscopic fields of the lung (250/animal) were judged to be normal or abnormal without knowledge of treatment. This measurement was reproducible (r = 0.95 for duplicate measurements, n = 55). All guinea pigs were maintained in HEPA-filtered air. There was a low level of pulmonary response to an i.t. challenge of M. faeni in animals that received medium. Animals that received pulmonary cells, either cultured or noncultured, did not differ from those in the control group. There was a substantial increase (p less than 0.01) in the extent of pulmonary abnormalities in the recipients of the lymphoblast population, with significant correlation (r = 0.87, p less than 0.01) between the number of lymphoblasts transferred and the extent of pulmonary abnormalities.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)