The Effect of Cyclophosphamide on the Ontogeny of the Humoral Immune Response in Chickens

Abstract

Abstract Antibody formation and immunoglobulin synthesis were severely depressed in adolescent chickens treated daily with the alkylating agent, cyclophosphamide (Cy), for the first 3 days of extraembryonic life. Most birds failed to produce significant levels of antibodies to three test antigens injected at 7 and 11 weeks of age. Moreover, IgM and IgG levels in the sera of 5 out of 13 Cy-treated birds were less than 0.5% of the immunoglobulin levels found in untreated birds of the same age. The selective nature of Cy suppression on the ontogeny of the humoral immune response was evidenced by the intact graft-vs-host reactivity of peripheral blood cells derived from Cy-treated birds.