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From the Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York
Abstract
A study has been made of the secondary antibody response in guinea pigs immunized with purified diphtheria toxoid. The antitoxin content of the alum granuloma at the injection site, the draining lymph node and the blood was measured by the rabbit intracutaneous test and, whenever possible, by the quantitative precipitin technique.
From the observed time-concentration curves it is postulated that lymph antibody is a measure of the rate of antibody production and that serum antibody represents the accumulation of antibody liberated into the blood reservoir. The antibody pattern in the alum granuloma appears to reflect both the processes of synthesis and accumulation. A theoretical curve for serum antibody calculated from the above assumptions agrees well with the experimental data and strongly supports the hypothesis.
These findings confirm the results of a previous study on the kinetics of cholera antibody formation in guinea pigs (1, 4). Furthermore, since similar rates of antibody production were obtained with either a soluble or particulate antigen, with different routes of inoculation and at different sampling sites, it is concluded that a general measure of secondary antibody synthesis has been demonstrated for one species of experimental animal.
A correlation of the rate of diphtheria antitoxin formation with the determinations of toxoid decay in the lymph node indicates that the anamnestic production of antibody proceeds in at least two steps. The current theories of antibody formation which postulate various intermediates are considered in the light of the kinetic evidence.
Footnotes
1 Research carried out at Brookhaven National Laboratory under the auspices of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission.
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