The Use of Adjuvants in the Production of Rh Antisera in Animals

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Abstract
Summary: Human group O, type MN, Rh+ erythrocytes gave rise to adequate Rh agglutinins in six of 15 guinea pigs injected intraäbdominally with a plain cell suspension. Weak agglutinins were present in the nine remaining animals of this group. When Rh+ erythrocytes were incorporated into a water-in-oil emulsion with Falba, Bayol F and M. tuberculosis Jamaica #22, not only was there no enhancement of Rh antibody formation, but such agglutinin formation seemed inhibited. Thus the adjuvants used did not enhance anti-Rh production, but actually seemed to depress it. When stroma were prepared by Sharples centrifugation of the above erythrocytes, the material was poorly antigenic when tested by injection of the plain stroma. Stroma incorporated into the above emulsion also produced no Rh agglutinins when injected into guinea pigs. The peak of Rh agglutinin production was reached one to two weeks after weekly injections of the antigen were started. The peak of agglutinin production to the whole group O, type MN, Rh+ red cell and stroma was reached the fourth to sixth week after injection had been started. Despite continued injection of the antigens, guinea pigs producing Rh agglutinins no longer possessed these antibodies after two weeks. No Rh blocking antibodies were demonstrated. Guinea pigs do not seem generally to produce anti-Rh agglutinins comparable to those obtained from good human sera.
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