Abstract
Guinea-pigs were passively sensitized by the injection of the serum of a rabbit highly immunized to horse serum. Before the latent period had expired, i. e., during the first 12 hours, the guinea-pig was killed, and the horns of the uteri were suspended for graphic tracing. One horn was immediately tested by means of horse serum. If it gave no response, the preparation was at once thoroughly washed, and the experiment continued. Both horns were kept in Locke's fluid for several hours. At the end of this time, both were again tested against horse serum. Both regularly responded with contractions, but that yielded by the previously tested horn was much less vigorous than by the other. The latter fact shows that the preliminary test by horse serum had partially desensitized the antibodies.
The following conclusions are drawn:
1. The cells absorb antibody from the blood during the first stage of the latent period. These antibodies can unite with the antigen, and the cells can thus be desensitized, but that this reaction produces no cellular contraction in the sensitized muscle cells.
2. The cells “activate” the absorbed antibody during the second stage of the latent period, in such wise that the reaction with antigen produces a cellular stimulus, with muscular contraction in case of the uterus. It is for this reason, that the combination of antigen and antibody in the blood never produces an anaphylactic response.
The'activation” by the cells also greatly increases the avidity of cellular antibody for antigen, as has been shown in previous papers. Exactly the same features differentiate cellular from circulating antibodies after active sensitization.
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