Howard J. Schwartz

Studies on “intrinsic” allergic respiratory disease, with a hypothesis concerning its pathogenesis☆

Abstract In an effort to shed some light on the pathogenetic mechanisms involved in the intrinsic allergic respiratory syndromes, the immune responses of 11 such patients have been compared with those of 6 atopic patients, following parenteral and intranasal immunization. All patients in both groups developed immediate wheal and erythema skin reactivity 3 weeks following subcutaneous administration of pneumococcal polysaccharide, which was passively transferrable to a nonsensitive recipient with 3 sera. The atopic group demonstrated clear-cut sensitization to intranasally administered ribonuclease, while the intrinsic group did not. We suggest that the intrinsic allergic respiratory syndromes do not involve reaginic antibody-antigen reactions as in atopic disease.

Hymenoptera sensitivity: I. Conjunctival testing in insect allergy

Abstract Conjunctival testing to a whole body mixture of bee, wasp, hornet, and yellow jacket in Cocas solution was carried out in an attempt to develop a simple clinical test which would be useful in verifying a history suggestive of stinging insect allergy. Approximately 60 per cent of 52 insect-sensitive patients undergoing hyposensitization therapy demonstrated positive reactions; whereas only 8 per cent of control subjects reacted similarly. This suggests that false positive conjunctival reactivity to Hymenoptera is unlikely, but that clinically significant numbers of patients will be falsely negative. Further implications are discussed.

The Effect of Carrier Tolerance on the Antibody Response of Guinea Pigs to the Azobenzenearsonate Hapten1

Recently several investigators have shown that the immune response of an animal immunized with hapten-carrier conjugates is significantly influenced by the nature of the carrier molecule. Siskind et at. (1) demonstrated in guinea pigs that the carrier to which DNP is coupled influences the amount, type, and functional activity (i.e., affinity) of anti-DNP antibodies, and Fronstin, Sage, and Vazquez (2) have shown that the degree of anti-DNP responsiveness elicited in mice is directly related to the antigenicity of the carrier. The present study examines the antihapten antibody response of guinea pigs immunized with arsanilic acid conjugates of homologous and heterologous serum protein carriers, and compares the effect of natural and acquired tolerance to the carrier on these responses. Materials and Methods. Random bred, adult male albino guinea pigs (300-360 g) were used in these experiments. Reagents. Azobenzenearsonate (ABA) conjugates were made as before (3) by diazoti-zation and coupling in the ratio of 10-5 moles arsanilic acid to 10 mg protein. Human, bovine, rabbit, and guinea pig serum albumins (HSA, BSA, RSA, GSA) and gamma globulins (HGG, BGG, RGG, GGG), obtained from Pentex Inc., Kankakee, Ind., were utilized as carrier proteins. In addition, arsanilic acid conujgated to egg lysozyme (Worthington Lab.) was used as the test antigen in studies of the antihapten antibody response. All conjugates were dialyzed against 0.01 M borate buffer pH 8.5 before use. Immunization procedure. Guinea pigs were immunized with 0.1 ml of complete Freunds adjuvant containing 100 fig of ABA-protein distributed equally among the four footpads. The complete Freunds adjuvant was prepared with 8.5 parts light mineral oil: 1.5 parts Arlacel A: 5 mg/ml killed, dried M. tuberculosis.