10 



INTRODUCTION TO IMMUNOCHEMICAL SPECIFICITY 



M and anti-M or the union of H and anti-H, or both. But let us 

 suppose we couple diazotized metanilic acid with the proteins of 

 chicken serum, which we may designate as C. Rabbit antibodies to 

 horse serum proteins do not precipitate with chicken serum proteins, 

 so the confusion caused by interference of the protein carrier is elimi- 

 nated. If we mix our immune rabbit serum with CM and obtain a 

 precipitate, we know it is due to the reaction of the anti-M of the 

 rabbit serum with the M (metanilic acid) we have coupled with the 

 chicken serum C (Fig. 1-7). 



Rabbit immunized with complex 

 antigen (horse serum coupled with 

 hapten M) gives ontiserum "anti-M," 

 which contains anti-horse antibodies 

 and antibodies for hopten (anti-M) 



+ 



Precipitote 



Precipitate 



"Anti-M" Chicken No precipitate "Anti-M" Chicken-M Precipitate 



Fig. 1-7. Principle of detecting antibodies to a hapten independently of anti- 

 bodies to the protein carrier. 



References 



Boyd, W. C, 1956, Fundamentals of IininiDiology, 3rd ed., Interscience, 



New York. 

 Cohn, E. J., T. L. McMeekin, J. L. Oncley, J. AI. Newell, and W. L. Hughes. 

 1940, /. Am. Chem. Soc. 62, 3386. 



