Acquired Immunological Unresponsiveness to Bovine Plasma Albumin in Mice

Abstract

It has been suggested by Cinader (1961) and Dresser (1961) that the failure to demonstrate specific unresponsiveness, or the production of partial unresponsiveness, by the injection of the antigen prior to or soon after birth could be due to the presence of impurities in the antigens used. An animal injected neonatally with sufficient principal antigen to induce unresponsiveness would retain reactive competence to the impurities. Subsequent challenge would elicit no antibodies to the principal antigen but only to the impurities. In order to test this simple hypothesis the following studies, using bovine plasma albumin (B.P.A.) (Armour Fraction V) as an antigen, were undertaken with two-dimensional gel diffusion analysis of the specific antigenj antibody reactions of the albumin and its impurities. The methods developed by Sobey and Magrath (unpublished data) were used to measure antibody response to the principal antigen (B.P.A.-albumin) and the impurities (B.P.A.-impurities). All titres are given in a log2 scale.