Suppression by Autogenous Complementary Idiotypes: the Priority First Response* of the by Donald

Conceptually, one antibody could be directed against a combining site structure of another antibody; thus, the two antibodies would combine with each other and might be considered at least partially complementary. Since the combining regions of antigen receptors on B lymphocytes are apparently identical with the combining regions of the antibodies that the cells produce (1-8), then complementary antibodies might also be considered complementary anti-receptor antibodies (9). By convention, one antibody is described as "idiotype," and the specific anti-antibody for it as anti-idiotypic. But these distinctions may be arbitrary when considering the functional relationships between complementary antibodies or receptors. Thus, for convenience in this paper, we will refer to idiotype and anti-idiotype as complementary idiotypes or antibodies. Our evidence for complementary responses is derived from a model developed by Cosenza and KShler (4, 5). In their studies, A/He mice were immunized with the phosphorylcholine (PC) ~ binding IgA myeloma protein produced by the plasmacytoma TEPC-15 (T15), induced in and carried by serial transplantation in BALB/c mice. The antibody raised to T15 neutralized the specific antibody activity of mouse IgM to PC, and it specifically suppressed the response to immunization with PC antigens when it was given passively to adult BALB/c mice or was added to cultures of BALB/c spleen cells. Thus, the antibody raised against an antibody, i.e. T15, had activity against a normally induced antibody, and apparently it functioned as an anti-receptor antibody (5).