Bovine Albumin as an Antigen. ∗

Abstract

The possible use of bovine albumin in man 1 , 2 , 3 makes the behavior of bovine albumin as an antigen of some interest. Previous reports 4 , 5 , 6 indicate that bovine albumin behaves as a potent antigen in rabbits and guinea pigs. This paper is to report some studies on the antigenic behavior of bovine albumin in rabbits, guinea pigs, and in man.

Bovine albumin was prepared as described elsewhere 3 by fraction-ation of plasma with ammonium sulfate. Electrophoretic analysis was carried out by the methods of Tiselius 7 and Longsworth. 8

Three rabbits were given a course of 6 injections of bovine albumin over a period of 4 weeks. Serum from blood drawn at the end of this period gave a titer as high as 24,000. Sixteen guinea pigs were given a sensitizing dose of 50 mg of albumin per kg and were tested with a shock dose of the same size administered intracardially. Eleven guinea pigs were similarly treated with globulin. All animals which died after the shock dose were posted. The results are given in Table I.

The bovine albumin had a longer sensitization period than globulin. A similar difference has been reported between horse albumin and globulin. 9

The following case history is definite evidence that bovine albumin may act as an antigen in man. Patient X. R. was given 10 cc of 6% albumin intravenously on November 11, 1939. The skin test to albumin, which had been previously negative, was positive on December 18, 1939, at which time 3 cc of 8.8% albumin solution were administered intravenously over a 5-minute period. At the end of this time the pulse was weak, the respiration was shallow, and cynanosis developed.