The Effect of Tolerance on the Specificity of the Antibody Response: Antibody to Oxazolonated Albumin of Animals Tolerant to the Protein Carrier

Abstract

Animals tolerant to human albumin (HA) produce antibody when immunized as adults with oxazolonated derivatives of HA. The proportion of animals producing antibody depends on the number of haptens per molecule of human albumin used in immunization. Two types of antibody-reactivities can be distinguished, one essentially directed to oxazolone and the other directed against protein determinants. The first of these constitutes the larger fraction of the total antibody. The protein antibody appears to be better adapted to the determinants of the native protein than to determinants of the modified protein, and is thus similar to previously described heteroclytic antibodies (18). These antibodies appear to be less well adapted to the immunogen than to a cross-reacting molecule. The findings are discussed in terms of the protein conformation of derivatives and of hypothetical receptor sites through which antibody synthesis may be initiated.