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Quantitative and Immunologic Aspects of the Handling of 2,4 Dinitrophenyl Guinea Pig Albumin by Macrophages

From the Section on Biologic Structure, Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014

Abstract

Studies correlating quantitative aspects of the handling of dinitrophenyl guinea pig albumin (DNP-GPA) by guinea pig macrophages with the potential of cell-associated antigen to initiate proliferation of immune T lymphocytes have examined the nature of immunologically relevant antigen. After the loss of 75% of cell-bound DNP-GPA during the first 24 hr of in vitro culture, the remaining antigen persists qualitatively unchanged throughout further culture. However, coincident immunogenicity of the macrophage-associated DNP-GPA progressively decreases, suggesting loss of accessibility of the antigen to responding immune lymphocytes. There is a small, stable, surface antigen pool but these studies suggest that the immunologically critical fraction of DNP-GPA, as regards guinea pig T cell activation, is resistant to trypsinization and inaccessible to antibody.