Idiotypic analysis of the response of C57BL/6 mice to the (4‐hydroxy‐3‐nitrophenyl)acetyl group

Abstract

Strain C57BL/6 mice produce a highly restricted primary response to the (4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl)acetyl (NP) group. This response is composed of molecules having μ or γ₁ heavy chains and light chains of the λ type. A guinea pig anti-idiotype was raised to the purified C57BL/6 primary anti-NP immunoglobulin. After suitable absorption, this anti-idiotype was shown to detect markers present on the primary anti-NP immunoglobulin only of those strains which express the Ig-l^b allotype. Breeding experiments demonstrated that the marker segregated with the heavy chain linkage group.