Central effect of bladder filling and voiding

In normal subjects and in patients with spasticity and/or urological complaints changes in somatic muscle reflexes associated with filling of the urinary bladder were observed. Two different patterns of reflex changes occurred. One pattern was associated with easy initiation of voiding: it consisted of increasing H and T reflexes and decreasing flexor reflexes with concomitant decreasing sphincter muscle activity. The other pattern was associated with difficulty in initiation of voiding: it consisted of increasing flexor relfexes including sphincter muscle activity and decreasing H and T reflexes. The importance of these reflex patterns in disturbances of micturition is discussed. During voiding, decreasing flexor relfexes with increasing H and T reflexes occur as the general pattern.

Macrophage-lymphocyte clusters in the immune response to soluble protein antigen in vitro

We have studied the physical interaction between macrophages and lymphocytes during the immune response to purified protein derivative of tuberculin (PPD) in vitro. Mixtures of peritoneal macrophages and lymph node lymphocytes from guinea pigs immunized with tubercle bacilli formed cell clusters during 20 h of culture with PPD. The number of clusters produced was correlated to the number of immune lymphocytes in the cultures. Peritoneal macrophages which had been pulsed with PPD and untreated lymph node lymphocytes produced cell clusters in the absence of free PPD in numbers equivalent to those produced by the same cells in the presence of free PPD. In cultures containing a mixture of PPD-pulsed macrophages, not-pulsed macrophages, and immune lymphocytes with no free PPD, cell clusters developed mainly between the antigen-pulsed macrophages and lymphocytes. Cluster formation was antigen-specific with the specificity residing in the lymphocytes, mainly or exclusively in the T lymphocytes. These data indicate that in the process of cell cluster formation macrophages serve as antigen-binding (or -processing) cells, while a subpopulation of lymphocytes interact physically and specifically with the macrophages.