Attempts to Transfer Contact Sensitivity Passively with Subcellular Fractions in the Guinea Pig

Abstract

Guinea pigs were sensitized with erythrocyte stromata con-jugated with picryl chloride 00 and to 2-phenyl-4-ethoxymethylene oxazolone (II). Live lymph node and spleen cells from such animals transferred sensitivity. Similar cell suspensions were treated with a hypertonic sucrose-salts-Tris solution, homogenized and spun in the ultracentrifuge at 105G. Both the supernatant fluid (cell sap) and the pellet (microsome fraction) thus obtained did not transfer specific sensitization on intraperitoneal injection into new guinea pigs. Material from animals sensitized to (I) showed non-specific increased reactivity in animals injected with either fraction. Material from animals treated with (II) did not show such reactivity. In conjunction with other (unpublished) data of the authors, the data lead to the conclusion that fractions of the kind described do not contain the active principle of transfer.