Experimental production of rabbit anti-guinea-pig epidermal cell sera. Comparison to pemphigus antibodies.

Anti-epidermal cell sera (AES) were obtained by immunizing rabbits with enzymatically dispersed, viable guinea-pig epidermal cells followed by absorption with guinea-pig red blood cells, spleen and thymus cells, and liver powders. Complement-mediated cytotoxicity and immunofluorescence demonstrated that AES were towards cell surface antigen specific for stratified squamous epithelia of guinea pigs, and cross reacted with the corresponding tissues of humans and monkeys. Immunofluorescence revealed that AES reacted with Hassall's corpuscles and surrounding epithelial cells of the guinea-pig thympus which seemed to share common antigens with the epidermis; AES gave no reaction with other organs. While antigens reactive with pemphigus antibodies (PA) were demonstrated by membrane immunofluorescence to be present on the epidermal cell surface, PA showed no cytotoxicity to guinea-pig and human epidermal cells. Re-treatment of isolated epidermal cells with trypsin showed that antigens ractive with PA were more susceptible to the enzyme than those reactive with AES. These findings suggest that the cell surface antigens binding AES are different from the antigens which bind PA.