Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Immunology logoLink to Immunology
. 1962 Mar;5(2):278–286.

The Immune Response to Blood-Group Substances

E J Holborow, G Loewi
PMCID: PMC1424155  PMID: 13908295

Abstract

Guinea pigs were immunized with purified human A and Lea blood-group substances. Skin testing revealed a delayed hypersensitivity response to A and Lea and other human blood-group substances, showing a very marked degree of cross-reactivity, irrespective of the immunizing antigen. Circulating antibody was tested for by eliciting systemic anaphylaxis, by direct cutaneous anaphylaxis using a dye-spreading method, and by the passive cutaneous anaphylaxis test of Ovary. Precipitation and red-cell agglutination tests were also employed. It was found that immunization with A substance consistently produced a major specific anti-A antibody and a minor separate antibody specific for Lea. Immunization with Lea substance did not consistently give rise to detectable circulating antibody. In those animals, however, in which antibody to Lea was found, a reaction with A substance could also be shown. These results could be explained in terms of a small amount of Lea activity in A substance, as revealed by agglutination-inhibition and P.C.A. tests.

The results indicate that the polypeptide part of blood-group mucopolysaccharides is the entity chiefly concerned in producing and eliciting delayed hypersensitivity to these substances. The cross-reactivity of the delayed response supports the view that the different human blood-group mucopolysaccharides share a similar polypeptide component.

The more precise nature of the circulating antibody is explicable in terms of a response to the specific polysaccharide entity of blood-group substances. These findings are considered in the light of previous work on the relationship of delayed hypersensitivity to the circulating antibody response. The question of a possible delayed response to carbohydrate antigen is left unanswered.

Full text

PDF
278

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. BROWN P. C., GLYNN L. E., HOLBOROW E. J. Lewisa substance in saliva; a qualitative difference between secretors and non-secretors. Vox Sang. 1959 Feb;4(1):1–12. doi: 10.1111/j.1423-0410.1959.tb04306.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. GLYNN L. E., HOLBOROW E. J., JOHNSON G. D. The influence of the A-like substance of rabbits on their immune response to human blood-group A-substance. J Immunol. 1956 May;76(5):357–362. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. MILES A. A., WILHELM D. L. Enzyme-like globulins from serum reproducing the vascular phenomena of inflammation. I. An activable permeability factor and its inhibitor in guinea-pig serum. Br J Exp Pathol. 1955 Feb;36(1):71–81. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. MORGAN W. T. A contribution to human biochemical genetics; the chemical basis of blood-group specificity. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1960 Feb 2;151:308–347. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1960.0002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. OVARY Z., BIER O. G. Quantitative studies on passive cutaneous anaphylaxis in the guinea pig and its relationship to the Arthus phenomenon. J Immunol. 1953 Jul;71(1):6–11. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. PUSZTAI A., MORGAN W. T. Degradation of blood group-specific mucopoly-saccharides by ficin and papain. Nature. 1958 Sep 6;182(4636):648–650. doi: 10.1038/182648a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. WATKINS W. M., MORGAN W. T. Possible genetical pathways for the biosynthesis of blood group mucopolysaccharides. Vox Sang. 1959 Apr;4(2):97–119. doi: 10.1111/j.1423-0410.1959.tb04023.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Immunology are provided here courtesy of British Society for Immunology

RESOURCES