Genetic control of the humoral immune response to rabbit erythrocyte isoantigens.

  • 1 July 1973
    • journal article
    • Vol. 25  (1) , 131-9
Abstract
Blood group HgA negative rabbits were injected with 2 × 109 HgA positive erythrocytes from a donor rabbit. Assortative matings were set up between those rabbits which produced detectable anti-HgA (responders) and those which did not (non-responders). The progeny were injected with 2 × 109 HgA positive erythrocytes 3 months after birth and their anti-HgA response measured. It was found that 20/24 (83 per cent) of the offspring of responder parents, but only 4/26 (15 per cent) of the offspring of non-responder parents, produced detectable anti-HgA. No difference was found between the ability of responders and non-responders to produce haemagglutinins to various doses of sheep erythrocytes. In contrast, non-responder rabbits rarely responded to non-HgA blood group isoantigens on the donor erythrocytes whereas rabbits which responded to HgA after injection of the donor erythrocytes often responded to non-HgA isoantigens. Typing the cells of non-responder rabbits with the sera from responder rabbits containing non-HgA antibodies showed that the non-responder cells were antigenically more like the donor cells than were the cells from responder rabbits. The ability to respond to HgA was not associated with any particular heavy or light chain immunoglobulin allotype specificities. It is considered that HgA has an important helper function in regard to the antibody response to non-HgA antigens but the latter probably also have a similar but less marked effect in relation to the HgA antibody response. The genetic control observed is thought to operate through T cell recognition and reaction with HgA and other blood group determinants.