Enhanced Antibody Response in the Offspring of Immunized Rats

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Abstract
The inbred ACI strain of rats responds very well to immunization with poly Glu52 Lys33 Tyr15, whereas the F344 strain responds quite poorly; at least two genes are involved in the control of the antibody response (1). In the course of breeding the animals for these studies, we observed that the offspring of the F344 strain made considerably more antibody when the mothers were immunized with the antigen aggregated with methylated bovine serum albumin prior to becoming pregnant. It is important to define the factors involved in this effect, since they are presumably environmental and could interfere with the analysis of the genetic control of the antibody response. In the studies reported here, the antibody responses of the offspring from unimmunized mothers and from immunized mothers are compared. Each of the immunized mothers received the antigen aggregated with methylated bovine serum albumin.

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