IMMUNE RESPONSE IN COLD EXPOSURE 



"cold exposed" animals when compared to the sera from animals 

 maintained at normal environmental temperatures. This fraction 

 has been reported to contain 55 to 66 per cent of the total conjugated 

 lipid in human serum(UrialandGrabar,1956). A second observation 

 of interest, although not necessarily significant, is that the serum 

 fractions observed on starch gel and stained by Amido (black) 

 Schwartz stain consistently appeared to be more distinct and well 

 defined in the sera of the "cold exposed" animals. 



Immune- electrophoresis 



Because of the high degree of resolution possible by Immuno- 

 electrophoresis, this technique has proved to be invaluable in the 

 identification of complex antigenic mixtures from a variety of 

 sources (Growle, 1961). We felt that this method would prove to be 

 useful in determining the sensitivity and/or selectivity of the im- 

 mune mechanism because the sera of animals immunized during 

 periods of cold exposure could be compared with those of animals 

 maintained at "normal" temperature and immunized in an identical 

 manner. The ability of the antibody forming mechanism to respond 

 to a heterogeneous spectrum of antigens present in varying con- 

 centrations should provide a sensitive and reliable index of the 

 qualitative immune response. Sera from "cold exposed" and "nor- 

 mal" rabbits were analyzed simultaneously by immune- electro- 

 phoresis, and the results were compared. Serum samples from 

 each of the groups were allowed to migrate in the gel under the 

 influence of an electric current. Following the migration period, 

 the antigen was applied to a center trough and allowed to diffuse 

 into the gel and react simultaneously with each of the separated 

 antiserum preparations. The technique used is shown in Figure 3. 



To date, no significant differences have been observed in the 

 qualitative response of "cold exposed" and "normal" animals as 

 measured by analysis of their sera by immune- electrophoresis. 

 However, application of this technique has been restricted to only 

 forty serum samples due to insufficient time. This phase of the 

 investigation is currently being intensified, and final judgment con- 

 cerning the applicability of this technique to these studies must 

 await completion of additional experiments. 



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