|
|||||
|
|
Ultracentrifugal Characterization of Antibodies in Sera of Ragweed-Sensitive Individuals |
|
| Authors: | L. Gyenes J. Gordon A. H. Sehon |
| Abstract: | Sera containing skin-sensitizing and/or blocking antibodies were centrifuged in partition cells and the distribution of these antibodies and of the 7S components was determined in the top and bottom compartments after centrifugation. The specific activity of blocking antibodies with respect to the 7S components approached unity, suggesting that antibodies to ragweed pollen constituents produced on active immunization were associated with the 7S globulins. In contrast, the specific skin-sensitizing activities of allergic sera ranged from 3 to 25, indicating that skin-sensitizing activity was not associated with the 7S components but with a moiety having sedimentation coefficient higher than 7S. By the method of Yphantis and Waugh (1956) the sedimentation coefficients of haemagglutinating and skin-sensitizing antibodies could be determined directly from haemagglutination and P.K. titres of the original sera and of the solutions recovered from the top compartments of the partition cells. With this technique rabbit anti-ragweed antibodies and blocking antibodies produced in a non-allergic individual were shown to be associated with the slower sedimenting serum globulins, i.e. their sedimentation coefficient was of the order of 7S. In contrast, skin-sensitizing antibodies in sera of non-treated allergic individuals were shown to have a sedimentation coefficient larger than 7S and probably of the order of 19S. In addition, it was shown that two haemagglutinating factors may be present in these sera: one with a sedimentation coefficient of the order of 19S and the other with a sedimentation coefficient of about 7S. |
| Keywords: | |