Activity of Mouse Reaginic Antibodies in the Rat: Passive Cutaneous Anaphylaxis and in Vitro Passive Histamine Release

Abstract

Mouse reaginic antibodies were raised by repeated low antigen dose boosts and hapten-specific antibodies were isolated from the sera by an affinity chromatography procedure. It was found that both the crude, reagin-containing sera and the hapten-specific antibody preparations could be assayed for their reagin content using the passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) reaction in the rat. The sensitivity of this test was at least equal to the more usual homologous species PCA reaction. The isolated, haptenspecific antibodies were essentially equipotent to similarly isolated rat antibodies in preparing rat peritoneal cells for antigen-induced release of histamine in vitro.