IMMUNE RESPONSIVENESS OF HIGH AND LOW ANTIBODY-PRODUCING LINES OF MICE AGAINST AN ANTIGEN NON-CROSS-REACTING WITH SELECTION ANTIGEN

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. C129  (1) , 13-27
Abstract
Mice genetically selected for high (HL) or low (LL) antibody responsiveness to sheep erythrocytes (SE) also differed in the immune response to other antigens. The non-specific effect of the selection on responsiveness to bovine serum albumin (BSA) (an antigen non cross-reacting with SE) was studied. BSA was used either heat-aggregated (H-BSA) or alum-precipitated (A1-BSA). The characteristics of the response to H-BSA and to SE injected i.v. were similar in several aspects: ranges of interline difference in agglutinin response were equivalent and minimal immunogenic doses were lower in HL than in LL mice. As for SE, the use of an adjuvant (A1-BSA) increased the response of LL more than that of HL mice, so the interline difference decreased. The interline difference between minimal immunogenic doses was weaker with A1-BSA than with H-BSA (100 times and 10,000 times, respectively). The threshold dose for induction of immunologic memory was lower in the HL than in LL mice. For A1-BSA this threshold dose was higher than the minimal immunogenic dose in both lines; for H-BSA it was higher (in HL) or equal (in LL) to the minimal immunogenic dose. The selective breeding for SE responsiveness apparently modified the antibody response to BSA in a similar way. The group of genes controlling the level of antibody response are also responsible for the induction of immunological memory.