[Anaemia following BCG infection in mice: need for presence of thymodependent lymphocytes (author's transl)].

An anaemia and a decreased number of erythroid bone marrow cells were observed on the first weeks following the intravenous injection of 1 mg of BCG into normal mice. No such modification of erythropoiesis was detected in Nude mice. The graft of thymus from new born mice to Nude adults before BCG infection allowed to obtain a drop of packed-cell volume. In previously infected Nude mice, the injection of spleen cells providing from infected normal mice also modified the erythropoiesis. This effect was lost by pretreatment of injected spleen cells with anti-theta serum and complement. Thus, the conditions necessary to the development of the anaemia during BCG infection correlated with the conditions which allowed an immune response against infection.