The Immune Response to Human γG-Immunoglobulin in Rabbits Unresponsive to Fc Fragment and H Chain Protein

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Abstract
Summary: Adult rabbits were injected intravenously with small amounts of H chain protein obtained from patients with H chain disease and with ultracentrifuged Fc fragment of human γG. Most of the rabbits failed to respond to intravenous injection of either H chain protein or Fc fragment and were rendered unresponsive to these γG subunits as evidenced by a lack of an immune response to a subsequent injection of the subunits incorporated into incomplete adjuvant. When these unresponsive rabbits were injected with intact γG, they remained unresponsive to H chain protein and Fc fragment and formed large quantities of antibodies reacting with antigenic determinants on the Fab fragment. The difference between the persistence of unresponsiveness to the γG subunits and the termination of unresponsiveness observed in rabbits unresponsive to serum protein antigens and injected with cross-reacting serum protein antigens is discussed. Quantitative analyses of the amount of precipitating antibodies to γG, F(ab')2 fragment and Fab fragment in antisera obtained from rabbits unresponsive to Fc fragment and H chain protein and injected with γG demonstrated that smaller amounts of antibodies are precipitated with F(ab')2 fragment and Fab fragment than with intact γG. The failure of the F(ab')2 and Fab fragment to be completely precipitated is apparently the result of the formation of soluble complexes between the antibody and the relatively small subunits.

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