Abstract
Proteins have been selected as antigens capable of reproducing the reactions of immunity and the attempt has been made to determine if immunization by repeated injection modifies their absorption. In the normal rabbit proteins such as horse serum and egg albumin are absorbed with no conspicuous inflammatory reaction, whereas in the rabbit immunized by six or seven injections of the antigen at intervals of five days a subsequent injection produces an intense inflammatory reaction associated with necrosis at the site of introduction of the antigen (Arthus phenomenon). A former study 1 has shown that the injected horse serum, egg albumin or crystalline egg albumin introduced into an immunized animal fails to enter the blood in quantities demonstrable by the precipitin reaction, whereas, in the normal animal the antigen enters the blood and is demonstrable in considerable concentration. The present experiments were undertaken to determine the fate of the antigen at the site of injection. The first experiments were made with crystalline egg albumin. The presence of the protein in an extract of tissue removed from the site of injection was determined by the precipitin reaction and its concentration in a weighed amount of tissue determined by comparison with precipitin reactions obtained when the precipitating serum used in the tests was mixed with known concentrations of the antigen. Concentration of antigen at the site of injection in normal and immune animals at varying intervals after injection of 0.5 cc. of a 5 per cent solution of crystalline egg albumin is shown in the following table :
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