Anaphylactic Hypersensitivity Induced in Rabbits to Foreign Proteins in Freund's Adjuvant. ∗

Abstract

Summary and Conclusions

By the use of 3 criteria, namely: the presence of circulating antibodies in the serum; the mode of development of the skin reactions to intradermal injections of antigen, and the passive transfer of anaphylactic sensitivity to guinea pigs; it has been demonstrated that the sensitivity induced in rabbits to foreign proteins while incorporated in Freund's adjuvant is of the usual anaphylactic or foreign protein type.

The animals simultaneously develop a tuberculin sensitivity due to the M. tuberculosis organisms injected but this in no way alters the quality of the sensitivity developed to the foreign proteins. The persistence of the skin reactions to the higher concentrations of the serum antigens appears to be a reaction to the marked necrosis of tissue that occurs in these highly sensitized animals to the concentrated antigens rather than to any fundamental qualitative difference in the type of reactivity induced in the animals.