Antibody Formation Initiated <i>in Vitro</i>

Abstract

Summary Studies on the initiation of antibody formation in vitro have been conducted with cells from rabbits homozygous at the b locus (Ab4/Ab4 and Ab5/Ab5) which determines antigenic markers on the light polypeptide chains that are common to the several classes of immunoglobulins of the rabbit. It has been found that the IgM antibody produced by lymph node (LN) fragments from one normal rabbit in response to ribonucleic acid extracted from antigenically stimulated peritoneal exudate (PE) cells of a second rabbit has allotypic determinants characteristic for the immune globulins of the donor of the PE cells and foreign to those of the donor of the LN cells. In contrast, the IgG antibody that is subsequently formed in the same culture has the light chain allotypic markers of the immune globulins of the donor of the lymph node cells.