COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF T-LYMPHOCYTE AND B-LYMPHOCYTE IN RAINBOW-TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS-MYKISS) FOLLOWING THEIR SEPARATION BY NYLON WOOL ADHERENCE AND LECTIN AGGLUTINATION TECHNIQUES

A nylon wool separation technique was employed to separate rainbow tro ut leucocytes into adherent and non-adherent populations. The nonadher ent population showed a greater response to concanavalin A (ConA) and a lesser response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) than did the adherent po pulation in the spleen, kidney and peripheral blood. The great majorit y (>90%) of thymocytes were in the nonadherent population. The non-adh erent population from the spleen, kidney and peripheral blood showed s ignicantly (P>0.05) higher numbers of acid phosphatase-positive lympho cytes than the adherent population, but there was no significant diffe rence in the pattern of immunochemical staining using a mouse anti-tro ut IgM monoclonal antibody. Soybean agglutinin (SBA) was also employed as a leukoagglutinating reagent to study trout leucocytes. The recove red cells were in two main populations of agglutinated and unagglutina ted cells. There was no significant difference in the response of the agglutinated or unagglutinated cells to the mitogens ConA or LPS, or i n the staining patterns obtained using acid phosphatase or mouse anti- trout IgM monoclonal antibody.