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Rôle of "Auto-Antigens" in the Pathogenesis of Physical Allergy

From the McGill University Clinic, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Canada

Abstract

1. Guinea-pig serum was exposed to cold (-5°C.) or to heat (56°C.) for 1 minutes, and injected into a group of normal guinea pigs. Three weeks later reinjection of similarly treated serum caused an anaphylactic shock when the serum injected had been exposed to the same physical condition, but no anaphylaxis resulted when the serum injected had been exposed to the opposite physical condition.

2. Exposure of guinea pigs' hind legs to cold (-5°C.) or heat (56°C.) followed three weeks later by injection of serum treated with cold or heat resulted in anaphylactic shock in the correspondingly treated group but not in the cross-treated group.

3. Similar exposure of the guinea pig's hind limbs followed by re-exposure three weeks later to the same stimulus also resulted in anaphylactic shock. Cross experiments were again negative.

The present experiments seem to indicate a new mechanism in the production of physical allergies by which the organism's own protein can be changed by various physical agents, such as heat and cold, so that it acquires antigenic properties and becomes in our terminology an "auto-antigen."