The Antibody Mechanism of Ragweed Allergy. Electrophoretic and Chemical Studies

Certain specific inhibiting properties of ser-m.~ from patients treated with ragweed extract were first reported in 1935 by Cooke, Bamard, Hebald, and Stull (I). They interpreted their results as showing the development under treatment of a peculiar or inhibiting type of immune body that prevented the action of allergen on the sensitizing Adequate confirmation of these findings has been forthcoming. Subsequently, Stull, Sherman, and Cooke (2) separated aqueous serum dilutions by half-saturation with ammonium sulfate into albumin and globulin and further fractionated the latter by dialysis against distilled water into waterinsoluble euglobulin and water-soluble ''t From passive transfer tests with these fractions they concluded that both sensitizing and capacities were connected with pseudoglobulin. No confusion should result from the fact that in the present work the terms euglobulin and pseudoglohulin are applied with the different meaning of salting-out properties essentially in accordance with Kendall's usage (3). Recently we have continued further studies to relate, if possible, both and sensitizing antibody to electrophoretically defineable serum components. It was thought that such a correlation as reported in numerous publications for some precipitating and antitoxic antibodies (4--11) might also obtain for this artificially induceable blocking antibody. The studies here recorded indicate to us that antibody is connected in large part, if not entirely, with the gamma globulin. In the three ser-m.~ studied it could not be attributed definitely to any of the other dectrophoretic components but was found predominantly in the gamma globulin. This is quite different from the results of our pre]imln~ry report on the sensitizing antibody (12), a study of which has been continued and will be amplified in a later paper.