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The Permeability of the Gastro-Intestinal Mucosa of Guinea Pigs to Crystalline Egg-Albumin¹

From the Evans Memorial, Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals, and the Department of Pathology, Boston University School of Medicine

Abstract

1. All of the young-adult sensitive guinea pigs used in this experiment developed circulating antibodies following the oral administration of crystalline egg-albumin.

2. About 40 per cent of the sensitive guinea pigs that had been maintained on an adequate vitamin-C diet developed signs of anaphylaxis following a subsequent feeding of the same protein. However, about 70 per cent of the scorbutic sensitive guinea pigs developed anaphylaxis following a subsequent feeding of the antigen.

3. There seems to be a direct correlation during the first few weeks after sensitization between the circulating-antibody titer and the degree of anaphylactic shock produced by the oral administration of antigen in scorbutic and non-scorbutic sensitive guinea pigs.

4. After several weeks at a maximal level the circulating antibodies gradually decreased and finally disappeared entirely within two to three months despite the continued weekly feedings of the antigen. However, the antibodies reappeared following a subsequent parenteral injection of antigen in these animals, proving that this phenomenon is not due to a depression of the antibody-forming mechanism.

5. The possibility that this disappearance of circulating antibodies despite the continued feeding of antigen might be due to the localization of the ingested antigen by the antibodies in the gastro-intestinal mucosa, which would prevent the antigen from reaching the general antibody-forming organs, is discussed.

Footnotes

¹ Presented before the twenth-eighth annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists at Chicago, April 17, 1941.