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The Antibody Responses of Rabbits and Rats to Hemocyanin¹

From the Division of Experimental Pathology, Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, California

Abstract

The response of rabbits and rats to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) differed in a number of respects from responses to many other protein antigens. KLH is rapidly eliminated from the circulation and promptly degraded at least to the point of liberation of an I¹³¹ label in non-protein bound form. Maximum primary responses were elicited in rabbits by 2 mg of KLH and increases above this dose made little change in the response. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the antibody responses was that they consisted of considerable amounts of mercaptoethanol sensitive (MES) antibody. Primary responses of rabbits to KLH administered systemically were well sustained for several months and had approximately 50% MES antibody throughout the entire response. Six sequential responses of rats to systemically administered KLH were composed entirely of MES-19S antibody, and the secondary response was >30 times larger than the primary, indicating the operation of immunologic memory in this pure MES-19S antibody response. Even in responses to KLH in Freund's adjuvant or secondary systemic challenges, rabbits made significant amounts of MES antibody, and in few, if any, situations did the production of sizeable amounts of mercaptoethanol resistant antibody appear to interfere with the continued synthesis of MES antibody. Incorporation of KLH in incomplete Freund's adjuvant enhanced its immunogenicity approximately a thousandfold.

Footnotes

¹ This is publication number 159 from the Division of Experimental Pathology, Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, California.

This study was supported by United States Public Health Service Grant A1 07007 and AEC Contract AT(04-3)-410.

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