The immune response to bacterial dextrans. I. Genetic control of responsiveness
Ivars, F.; Holmberg, D.; Coutinho, A.
Scandinavian Journal of Immunology 17(5): 419-428
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0300-9475 PMID: 6190217 Document Number: 214874
The in vivo antibody response to the thymus-independent (TI) antigen dextran B512 (Dex) was studied in various mouse strains. No non-responder strains were found but the magnitude of Dex-specific plaque-forming cell and serum antibody responses varied markedly among individual mice, even if these were of the same age and litter and kept in the same environment. This was the case both for mouse strains previously described genetically as high (IgCHb,j [Ig H chain allotype locus]) and for those described as low (IgCHa) responders to Dex. In low-responder BALB/c mice, the responsiveness to Dex increased with age, such that a large fraction of these mice responded as well as high-responder C57BL/6 mice. Analysis of aged backcross populations derived from IgCHb and IgCHa parental strains further substantiated these findings. All backcross mice, irrespective of IgCH haplotype, responded on the average equally well to Dex. The assignation of high or low responsiveness to IgCH locus-linked genes cannot be done unequivocally.