Abstract
Summary
Some rabbits immunized with 2 M ammonium sulfate precipitable fraction of rabbit submaxillary gland extract in Freund adjuvant developed complement fixing and precipitating antibodies and a cutaneous hypersensitivity of the delayed type, specific for immunizing antigen. Sera which yielded salivary gland specific precipitation and complement fixation reactions also yielded comparable reactions with rabbit saliva. Studies of the complement fixation and precipitation reactions pointed to the presence of distinct auto- and isoantibodies in different immune sera. The relevant observations may be summarized as follows. 1. Autoantibodies. Some rabbit antisera fixed complement and yielded lines of precipitation in Ouchterlony plates with extracts and globulins of submaxillaries of all rabbits tested including the antibody producing rabbits' own submaxillaries and saliva. 2. Isoantibodies, a) Some rabbit antisera yielded precipitation reactions with pooled rabbit submaxillary globulins and with antigens prepared from some individual glands but not with the submaxillary extracts of the antibody producing rabbits, b) Some isoantibody containing sera also yielded complement fixation reactions with some rabbit submaxillary extracts but not with antigens from the antibody producing rabbits, c) Immunoelectrophoretic studies revealed that the antigen(s) reactive with autoantibodies and those reactive with iso-antibodies have distinct electrophoretic mobilities. d) Gel diffusion precipitation tests of auto- and isoantibody containing sera appeared to yield reactions of non-identity.
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