The Effect of Antigen Dose and Time after Immunization on the Amount and Affinity of Anti-Hapten Antibody

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Summary: Guinea pigs immunized with 50 µg of 2,4-dinitrophenyl-bovine serum albumin (DNP-BSA) exhibit a marked increase in affinity of serum anti-hapten antibody between 2 weeks and 2 months after immunization associated with a modest fall in serum anti-DNP antibody concentration. On the other hand, guinea pigs immunized with 1 mg of DNP-BSA display little or no increase in affinity of serum antihapten antibody together with a marked fall in antibody concentration over the same time period. The selective induction of tolerance in cells capable of producing high affinity antibody upon immunization with large doses of antigen is proposed as an explanation for these observations and as one factor involved in the control of antibody synthesis. Furthermore, it is proposed that tolerance induction involves a thermodynamically driven step consisting of the binding of antigen to cell associated antibody.