Hapten antibody production and the relevance of allogeneic reactions to elimination of the carrier effect

Lewis (LEW) rats immunized 3 weeks before by injection of DNP-KLH together with Bordetella pertussis showed high levels of DNP antibody as judged by serum binding of 10(-7) M 3H-DNP-lysine 10 days after secondary immunization with DNP-KLH. Sera obtained from LEW rats following secondary immunization with DNP-BGG showed reduced DNP hapten binding. However, injection of 10(8) F1 hybrid Lewis X Brown Norway spleen cells into DNP-primed LEW rats 2 days before secondary immunization with DNP-BGG significantly increased the level of serum binding of 3H-DNP-lysine. These results provide evidence that the allogeneic cellular reaction associated with a host-versus-graft response induced by injection of F1 hybrid lymphoid cells into DNP-primed parental strain recipients partially obviates the requirement for carrier-specific T cells in the secondary anti-DNP response thereby providing a stimulus for triggering primed host B cells to produce antibody.