STUDIES ON MOUSE ANTIBODIES. II. MERCAPTOETHANOL-SENSITIVE 7 S ANTIBODIES IN MOUSE ANTISERA TO PROTEIN ANTIGENS.

Abstract

Summary and Conclusions Mice injected once with ovalbumin or ferritin in Freund9s adjuvant responded by producing 19 S and 7 S antibodies. Although 19 S antibody production continued for several months, the relative proportions of 7 S to 19 S changed from 5 to 1 at 2 weeks after immunization to 150 to 1 after 11 weeks. Sera that contained mainly 7 S antibody lost, upon reduction and alkylation, much of their aggregative efficiency and some of their precipitable antibody. The antibody in such reduced sera has been shown to combine promptly with antigen to form soluble complexes. That the effect of the reducing agent on aggregative properties was upon the antibody proper has been shown by experiments in which possible effects upon combining complement were shown to be irrelevant. It has also been shown that original activity was restored to treated serum by oxidation. Reduced antisera against ferritin failed to agglutinate tanned cells coated with ferritin unless the concentration of ferritin used in coating of the cells was increased 10-fold above that needed to sensitize cells to agglutination by control sera. Complement fixation by reduced 7 S antibody has been shown to be diminished, especially when it was studied in dilute systems and at 37°C.