Effect of Mineral Adjuvant on Lymphocyte Cooperation in the Secondary Antibody Response to a Hapten–Protein Conjugate

Abstract

THE determinants of the hapten and the protein carrier cooperate in the initiation of the primary antibody response to hapten–protein conjugates. Benacerraf and his colleagues¹ demonstrated that deoxynucleoprotein–polylysine alone does not elicit a primary response in certain strains of guinea-pigs, but DNP–polylysine complexed to bovine serum albumin elicits a vigorous response to the determinants of the albumin and DNP moieties. Similar findings were reported by Rajewsky and Rottländer² in rabbits using isoenzymes of porcine lactate dehydrogenase, and by Schierman and McBride³ in chickens using chicken erythrocyte isoantigens. Further studies^4,5 demonstrated that the determinants of the hapten and carrier also cooperate in the initiation of the secondary antibody response of rabbits to hapten–protein conjugates; and synergy is manifested between cells primed to the carrier and cells primed to the hapten in the adoptive immune response of X-irradiated mice to NIP–protein conjugates⁶, so establishing a cellular basis for cooperation between carrier and hapten in the secondary response.