Adsorption of Rabbit Antibody by Rat Tissue Mast Cells and Other Cells in vitro

Abstract

FROM observations obtained on guinea pig mesenteries dissected out from animals which had been passively sensitized in vivo with rabbit anti-ovalbumin, Humphrey and Mota¹ concluded that the antibody is reversibly adsorbed to the mast cell surface. When normal tissue mast cells isolated from the peritoneal fluid of albino rats were incubated with rabbit anti-human γ-globulin and afterwards treated with human γ-globulin characteristic morphological changes and release of some of the stored histamine occurred at the same time². None of these authors has been able to provide direct evidence for the presence of cell-fixed antibody on mast cells by means of the fluorescent antibody technique. However, White³, using this technique, demonstrated recently that some of the antibody-containing fractions from rabbit sera were indeed fixed to the mast cell surface in guinea pigs. The work reported here deals with quantitative aspects of antibody adsorption by rat mast cells as compared with the adsorptive capacity of other tissue cells.