Production of Heterologous Cytotoxic Antibodies in vitro

Abstract

THE possibility of inducing an immunological response in vitro to viral¹, erythrocyte^2,3 and tissue^4–6 antigens has recently been the subject of much research. Ginsburg and Sachs⁴ have shown the destructive activity of rat spleen cells stimulated in vitro with mouse embryo cells and proved the immunological nature of this phenomenon, but they found no activity in the tissue culture medium of these spleen cells cocultivated with mouse embryo cells. Interestingly, in these experiments the medium was harvested in the presence of mouse tissue which could have absorbed antibodies specific to mouse antigens; and, the culture medium was tested without adding complement, a substance shown to be necessary for the detection of cytotoxicity of antibodies induced in vivo.