Stochastic humoral expression of human growth hormone epitopes.

Competition experiments between insolubilized monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and polyclonal antisera has led to the description of the humoral expression of human growth hormone (hGH) epitopes. This study was carried out with sera from mice and hamsters submitted to different immunization schedules: chronic administration of the antigen, secondary response and conventional hyperimmunization. The results indicated the absence of a unique immunodominant epitope in hGH; a significant individual variation of antibody (Ab) population titres with time; changes with time in the relative proportion of one Ab population with respect to the others; and the occurrence of Ab enhancing the 125I-hGH binding to five mAb depending upon the individuals and the time of immunization. Heterocliticity towards non-human GH was also detected. Although most of the animals showed cross-reacting Ab, two out of 12 mice, chronically injected, developed heteroclitic Ab. The data suggest that the humoral response to different epitopes of a protein antigen during the maturation of the immune response is a stochastic process leading to transient humoral immunodominance, enhancing Ab populations and heterocliticity, depending upon individual characteristics, either in outbred or inbred populations.