The kinetics of IgG and IgM antibody-forming cells in ACI and F344 rats immunized with poly(glu52lys33tyr15)

Genetic control of the immune response to mammalian chymotrypsins in mice. II. The immune response to low doses of bovine alpha-chymotrypsin

The immune response to the antigen bovine pancreatic alpha-chymotrypsin was investigated in ten recombinant strains of mice. Using a fixed antigen-percentage bound isotope technique, it was found that the quantity of antibody produced was related to the H-2 haplotype of the responding animal. A continuous distribution for the mean antibody responses was obtained for the ten strains of mice. High responsiveness was associated with the H-2 haplotype gamma2. The genetic control of the immune response to this immunogen was found to be both quantitative and qualitative.

The avidity of IgM antibody in high and low responder rats

This study examined IgM antibody produced by highly responding ACI and poorly responding F344 rats follwing immunization with poly(Glu52Lys33Tyr15) or poly(Glu52Lys33Tyr15) aggregated with methylated bovine serum albunim (MeBSA). The ACI rats produced both IgM and IgG plaque-forming cells (PFC) following immunization with either form of antigen. The F344 rats did not respond to unaggregated poly(Glu52Lys33Tyr15), but they produced significant amounts of IgG PFC and extremely small amounts of IgM PFC after immunization with poly(Glu52Lys33Tyr15)/MeBSA. Both high and low responder rats had similar kinetic profiles of IgM antibody production, and this antibody had nearly identical avidity in both strains with no evidence for any maturation in avidity. thus, one of the genetic defects in the antibody response to poly(Glu52Lys33Tyr15) is an inability of the F344 strain to produce large amounts of IgM in response to this antigen.