Genetic control of two different types of antibody responses to oxazolone.

The genetic control of antibody responses induced by contact sensitization with oxazolone and immunization with an oxazolone-mouse serum albumin conjugate was studied in inbred, H-2 congenic and nude mice. Both types of antibody responses are T cell-dependent and regulated by immune response genes mapping at the I-B subregion of the H-2 complex. The relative magnitude of antibody responses induced by the two methods of immunization is governed by a gene or genes mapping at the I-B subregion of the H-2 complex. Presentation of antigen by these two methods gives H-2-dependent distributions of high and low responsiveness which are exactly opposite. Non-H-2 genes affect the overall level of antibody response but not the relative magnitude of the responses.