The Immune Response Against Hapten-Autologous Protein Conjugates in the Mouse

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Abstract
The present experiments were carried out to determine whether antibody formation in response to a hapten coupled to a non-immunogenic carrier was thymus-dependent. Mouse serum albumin (MSA) was used as the nonimmunogenic carrier. The anti-hapten responses to hapten-MSA conjugates of different hapten density were compared to the anti-hapten responses to hapten coupled to heterologous carriers in the following types of mice: 1) normal mice, 2) thymectomized, irradiated, and bone marrow cell reconstituted (TXBM) mice, 3) “sham”-thymectomized mice, and 4) TXBM mice further reconstituted with thymocytes (TXBMT mice). The anti-hapten response to hapten-MSA conjugates of medium and high density were all found to be suppressed in TXBM mice, whereas in TXBMT mice it was fully reconstituted. Thus, the antibody response to hapten-MSA conjugates in the mouse is thymus-dependent regardless of hapten density.

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