On the Production of Immune Sera for Tissues.

Abstract

In continuation of studies on cell antigens we examined the production of immune sera for tissues. In the literature there are contradictory reports, but several authors demonstrated marked organ specificity of such sera, e. g., Halpern,¹ Fleisher,² and recently Witebsky and Steinfeld.³ We found that immune sera could be obtained very easily and almost regularly by intravenous administration of small quantities of cell or organ suspensions, i. e., by 3 weekly injections of 10 mg. each of the fresh material suspended in saline. This was done with the hope that in this manner sera of higher specificity could be got than by the injection of larger quantities, as have been used generally. The following materials (ox) were taken as antigens: Tracheal epithelium, thymus cells, kidney and washed sperm cells. The resulting sera differentiated clearly in complement fixation tests between these 4 materials, an example of which is shown in the table.

To 0.5 cc. of progressively doubled dilutions of inactivated serum, starting with 1:10, was added 1 drop of an emulsion of about 2% of the antigen and 0.25 cc. of 1:10 guinea pig serum. After incubation for 1 hour at 37° C, 0.25 cc. of diluted Forssman immune serum containing 2½ hemolytic units and 1 drop of 50% sheep blood were added. The strength of the reactions is indicated as follows: 0 = no hemolysis, tr. = trace, d = distinct, w = weak, str. = strong, v. str. = very strong, ac. = almost complete, c = complete hemolysis.

On testinq, however, with a large number (19) of other tissues group reactions were obtained, more frequrntly with some sera than with others, also in cases where there is neither histological nor embryological relationship, e. g., trachea immune serum on brain.