In vitro Synthesis of Auto-Antibodies by Rabbit Lymph Node Cells following Cross-Immunization in vivo

Abstract

CROSS-reactions between phylogenically related antigens with an immune serum produced in an animal immunized with a substance similar to these antigens is a familiar concept. The idea that this cross-reaction could extend to self-substances of the immunized animal is not so widely accepted, although there are no essential differences between the cross reactions involving two foreign substances or the cross-reaction between one foreign and one autologous substance. If auto-antibodies can be synthesized in certain circumstances of immunization (that is, by a mammal immunized with antigens of another species of mammal) then, in vivo, in the spectrum of different antibody molecules synthesized in response to the stimulation, those which will bear an antibody specificity complementary to self-substances will immediately disappear.