Electrophoretic Analysis of Anti-Papilloma Rabbit Serum.

Abstract

Serum from domestic rabbits bearing the growths of infectious papillomatosis and those injected with extracts of domestic or cottontail rabbit growths or with the purified papilloma virus protein may contain immune bodies demonstrable by complement fixation, neutralization or precipitation. Recently, studies have been made in this laboratory to learn whether these immunological characters are paralleled by abnormal electrophoretic behavior of such serum. Sera from individuals of 6 groups of rabbits were examined: (1) domestic rabbits injected intraperitoneally with 0.5 mg of purified papilloma virus protein, once a week for 6 weeks, and serum taken for study every 7 days (for a total of 51 days); (2) domestic rabbits injected intravenously with 0.5 mg of purified papilloma virus protein, twice a week for 6 weeks, and the serum examined after 21 and 50 days; (3) domestic rabbits injected intraperitoneally with 1.0 cc of a 7.5% suspension of domestic rabbit warts, twice weekly for 6 weeks; (4) domestic rabbits bearing experimentally-induced growths for 39 to 72 days; (5) domestic rabbits carrying transplanted growths in abdominal organs for 115 days; (6) cottontail rabbits bearing experimentally-induced growths for 37 and 40 days. The serum was diluted with 2 volumes of buffer solution of pH 7.8 containing 8.7675 g NaCl, 2.6274 g Na2HPO4, and 0.2071 g NaH2PO4 · H2O per liter and dialyzed for 4 to 6 days at 2 to 9°C. For electrophoresis the moving boundary method of Tiselius was used and the boundary gradients were recorded as previously described. The index of serological change was complement-fixing titer. In the sera of animals receiving the virus intravenously or intra-peritoneally, the complement-fixing titer was 1 :16 to 1 :256.