Effect of passively administered isologous anti-idiotypes directed against anti-carrier (ovalbumin) antibodies on the anti-hapten IgE and IgG antibody responses in BALB/c mice.

Recently we have shown that active immunization of syngenic animals with anti-ovalbumin antibodies evokes an anti-idiotypic (aId) response, which in consequence leads to suppression of the anti-hapten (benzylpenicilloyl, BPO; dinitrophenyl, DNP) IgE and IgG formation subsequently attempted by immunization with low doses of hapten-OVA conjugates. In this work we describe attempts to suppress a primary or an already established anti-hapten IgE response by passive administration of (anti-carrier) anti-idiotypes to BALB/c mice. Our results show that ongoing anti-BPO or anti-DNP IgE responses can be depressed by injection of (anti-ovalbumin) aId, provided mice were previously immunized with conjugates of the haptens with the ovalbumin (OVA) carrier. The same animals suppressed for IgE also produce less anti-hapten and anti-carrier IgG antibodies but only after 5-6 weeks following the aId injection. The primary IgE response could be blocked by treating mice with (anti-OVA) aId and antigen at the same time.