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ABSTRACT

The hallmark of an antibody response is considered to be its specificity for the immunogen. Nonetheless, most antibody elicited by an immunogen has been reported to be unreactive with it. We have evaluated specificity by characterizing the primary antibody response of mice to heat-aggregated human gamma-globulin with four approaches (a) quantification of antibody-producing cells; (b) hybridoma analysis; (c) in situ antigen binding and (d) analysis of secreted antibody. The results show that the nonspecific component of this response is negligible. These observations suggest that such a component is not a basic feature of the antibody response and it is discussed that nonantigen-specific antibody may arise from a variety of causes many of which are artifactual.