Abstract
Summary
Passive administration of antibody during the course of an immune response can be used as a model system for studying physiological mechanisms of feedback control by circulating antibody. We have studied the effect of passively administered specific IgM antibody on the primary IgG response of mice to heterologous erythrocytes. These studies show that IgM antibody can enhance the IgG response to a suboptimal dose of the erythrocyte antigen. The effect is specific with regard to antigen and does not occur at an optimal antigen dose.
This work was supported by research grants from the National Cancer Institute of Canada and the Medical Research Council. One of us (S. A.) is the recipient of a fellowship from the NCI. Excellent technical assistance was provided by R. Kuba, J. Madrus, and H. Renwick.
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