Active anaphylaxis to a foreign protein induced in mice by the transfer of tissue from animals previously injected with the protein.

Following single intravenous injections of a foreign protein antigen, bovine gamma-globulin, into mice and rabbits, antigenic material persisting in the liver could be detected for several weeks. Ground liver tissue-taken from the mice and rabbits, just mentioned, either 4 or 6 weeks after injecting the antigen-when transferred repeatedly, at 2 or 3 day intervals, to the peritoneal cavities of normal, or unilaterally adrenalectomized, recipient mice, rendered the recipients sensitive to active anaphylaxis when they were challenged after a suitable interval by intravenous injections of the original antigen. The work throws some light on the state of the antigenic material that persists for 4 to 6 weeks in the livers of the donor animals. Obviously it is sufficiently unchanged, at least in its reactive groups, to engender in the recipient mice antibodies capable of reacting with the original antigen.