The genetic control of antibody production. A study of isoimmune antibodies in cattle twins

Abstract

1. The antibody response was studied in twenty-five monozygous (MZ) and ten dizygous (DZ) pairs o f cattle twins, which were inoculated with red cells from one cattle donor carrying the M, V and U′ antigens. These red cell antigens are controlled by genes at three different loci. Most o f the recipients lacked two or all of these antigens. All had passed puberty at the onset of the experiment.2. The antibody response against the three antigens differed markedly. Anti-U′ appeared on the average 11 days after the 1st injection and the maximum titre values were high. The V antibodies were produced at a slow rate, while anti-M was intermediate.3. There was some influence of age on the rate and intensity of antibody production. Older animals gave a faster response and, with regard to anti-M, also higher titres.4. Twins belonging to the same MZ pair usually produced v e r y similar antibody curves. However, there was at least one noticeable exception, which is given special consideration in the Discussion. The differences between MZ pairs accounted for a considerable portion of the variance in the different measures of antibody response and in most cases this portion remained significant also after the elimination of the influence o f age and sex. The DZ pairs were more variable.5. The simultaneous response o f two or three antibodies in the same animal was studied. There was a significant positive association between antibody types which suggests the existence o f individual (probably genetic) differences in the general antibody-producing ability.

Natural Agglutinins to Hidden Membrane Components in the Bovine Erythrocytes

“…In contrast to the anti-J, the agglutinins which reacted with enzyme-treated BE showed reasonable within M Z pair variation. Good within MZ pair agreement was reported earlier (Sellei & Rendel, 1968) when immune antibodies were produced by intentional immunization. Their levels, however, followed a characteristic time-dependent variation whereas the levels of agglutinins, in this study, showed only small changes.…”

Haemolytic Disease of Newborn Calves in a Dairy Herd in Queensland

“…The well known immunological concept that some cows are better able to produce antibodies than others has been well demonstrated in this and other herds where some animals have and maintain very high antibody titres following babesiosis vaccination, while others have only low titres in spite of repeated vaccination. This ability to respond to antigenic stimulus is in part hereditary (Sellei and Rendel 1968) and so could be a factor contributing to the higher than average incidence of haemolytic disease of the newborn in this herd, where breeding was conccntrated towards a particular cow family.…”

Serological and genetic identification of a bovine B lymphocyte alloantigen system

“…This. includes the antibody responses to several antigens, including normal allogeneic erythrocytes (Sellei & Rendel, 1968), Babesia argentina-infected erythrocytes (Dimmock, 1973), Brucella abortus vaccines (Kaneene et al, 1979), KLH (Kateley & Bazzell, 1978) and human serum albumin (Lie, 1979). The differential levels of resistance to natural pathogenic and parasitic infections also appear to have a genetic component.…”