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The Kinetics of the Serum Immunoglobulin Response of Rabbits to the Capsular Polysaccharide Antigen of Gaffkya Tetragena¹

From the Department of Microbiology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742

Abstract

Passive hemagglutination using the purified capsular polysaccharide antigen of Gaffkya tetragena, strain GT8, was employed to study the primary, secondary and hyperimmune responses of rabbits after sequential single intravenous injections of a formalinized whole cell vaccine. Radioimmunodiffusion and radioimmunoelectrophoresis with ¹⁴C-labeled capsule were used to identify the antibodies produced. Systems for long-lasting synthesis of 19S IgM and 7S IgG anticapsule hemagglutinins were found to coexist in primary and anamnestic responses. Evidence for the presence of 19S IgG was also found. At no time in any of the responses studied was there any indication of a major shift from production of one antibody type to production of the other. These findings show that there is no feedback inhibition of 19S synthesis by 7S IgG. Indications of the presence of a true 19S IgM memory were found. Typical 7S immunologic memory was also observed. Autoradiography revealed the presence of two additional antibody activities in the hyperimmune response. These activities were tentatively identified as IgA and ₂ macroglobulin. These observations, considered with the unrelated changes in the levels of the two antibody species produced during the responses and differences in rates of synthesis of the two antibodies during the maintenance phases of the response lead to the conclusion that at least two, and possibly four, separate components of the rabbit's immune mechanism were stimulated by administration of the capsular polysaccharide antigen of G. tetragena, strain GT8.

Footnotes

¹ This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health Grant 1-R01 AI-07863 from the United States Public Health Service.

² Present address: Division of Communicable Diseases and Immunology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D. C. 20012.