Surface coat variant antigen of Trypanosoma brucei brucei: its clearance from blood and concentration in organs of normal, infected, and immune mice.

Experiments were conducted to determine the fate of variant antigen once it was shed from the surface of Trypanosoma brucei brucei. Radioiodinated variant antigen was administered intravenously to normal mice, mice immunized to the homologous variant antigen, and mice infected with an antigenically dissimilar (heterologous) T. brucei brucei variant. The variant antigen was cleared slightly faster in infected and immune animals. Though over 80% of the variant antigen was cleared in all animals within 4 h, traces of radioactivity could be detected in the peripheral blood at 48 h postinjection. At 1 h postinjection, most of the variant antigen had collected in the liver, kidneys, bone marrow, spleen, lungs, thymus, and lymph nodes (listed in the order of decreasing radioactivity). At 24 h, the kidneys, liver, and spleen retained the most radioactivity. The kidneys had 10 to 20 times, the liver had 8 to 10 times, and the spleen had 5 to 7 times more variant antigen than was present in the organs' blood supply. At 48 h postinjection, two-thirds of the radioactivity present at 24 h remained in these tissues. The livers and spleens from infected animals had, on a per gram of tissue weight basis, reduced uptake of the soluble antigen whereas their lungs had an increased uptake. Radioactivity in blood and organs was proved to be associated with protein by electrophoresis/autoradiography and precipitation of radioactive protein of tissue extracts.