Antibodies to sea anemone nematocyst venom—I. Serological demonstration of specific antibodies produced in rabbits in response to nematocyst venom from the sea anemone, Aiptasia pallida

Abstract

R. I. Grove and D. A. Hessinger. Antibodies to sea anemone nematocyst venom—I. Serological demonstration of specific antibodies produced in rabbits in response to nematocyst venom from the sea anemone, Aiptasia pallida. Toxicon 17, 99–108, 1979.—Sea anemone, Aiptasia pallida, nematocyst venom was attenuated by dialysis against dilute formaldehyde and in combination with complete Freund's adjuvant used to immunize laboratory rabbits. Subsequent immunizations (challenges) were administered using active venom with incomplete Freund's adjuvant. The kinetics and strengths of the elicited humoral immune responses were monitored using double immunodiffusion in two dimensions (Ouchterlony technique) and microimmunoelectrophoresis. Subsequent immune challenges were administered only at optimal intervals after the previous immunization as determined by the loss of detectable precipitin reactions on Ouchterlony plates. The antisera of all challenges reacted identically with active and attenuated venoms indicating that the attenuated venom was antigenically equivalent to the active venom in in vitro immunodiffusion reactions and immunogenically equivalent in vivo in its ability to elicit humoral immune responses.