Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol 496, Issue 1 545-552, Copyright © 1987 by New York Academy of Sciences
Regulation of natural immunity (NK activity) by conditioning
R. N. Hiramoto, N. S. Hiramoto, H. B. Solvason and V. K. Ghanta
A paradigm is described for the conditioning of the NK response. Mice were
exposed to a classical conditioning procedure in which saccharin and
lithium chloride (LiCl) served as the conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with
an injection of either poly I:C or cytoxan, the unconditioned stimulus
(US). Poly I:C was used as the US for enhancement and cytoxan served as the
US for suppression. Subsequent exposure to the CS either enhanced or
suppressed the NK activity in the conditioned animals. Our studies showed
that only one association was needed for the learning to take place,
training to consumption of water was not necessary, and the conditioned
(enhanced) response could be recalled as soon as 7 days after pairing of
the US and CS.