Quantitative and Qualitative Studies on the Primary Antibody Response to Pneumococcal Polysaccharides at the Cellular Level

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Abstract
The kinetics of the antibody response to purified pneumococcal polysaccharides was studied at the cellular level using the technique of localized hemolysis-in-gel in conjunction with erythrocytes sensitized with immunizing antigen. The overall pattern of the antibody response was similar, with respect to the number of direct plaqueforming cells produced, to that reported for other antigens. However, using antisera specific for various classes of mouse immunoglobulins to characterize the types of specific plaque-forming cells produced, it appears that the antibody response to pneumococcal polysaccharides is exclusively macroglobulin in nature; two types of macroglobulin antibodies, differentiated on the basis of their efficiency in participating in immune hemolysis, are produced. The data suggest that direct plaque-forming cells may represent only 30% to 50% of the total number of antibody-forming cells produced following immunization.

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