Kinetics and localization of IgE tetanus antibody response in mice immunized by the intratracheal, intraperitoneal and subcutaneous routes.

The heterologous adoptive cutaneous anaphylaxis system was used to determine the kinetics of appearance of IgE-producing cells in various lymphoid tissues of mice following intratracheal (i.t.), intraperitoneal (i.p.), or subcutaneous (s.c.) immunization with tetanus toxoid and Bordetella pertussis organisms. Immunization, i.t. and i.p., produced similar patterns of response with the bronchial lymph nodes quantitatively exceeding the responses in other lymphoid tissues. In both cases the splenic lymphocyte response was second only to the bronchial and both appeared to parallel the serum PCA antibody. It is suggested that both responses represent draining lymph node responses since the bronchial lymph node drains both sites of immunization. After s.c. immunization a primary response of low order was found in the draining popliteal lymph node but not elsewhere. Although a dissociation was seen between responses obtained in various lymphoid tissues following s.c. and i.p. or i.t. immunization, no real evidence for a local mucosal response, such as has been reported for IgA, was obtained. These results lend experimental support to the observations that intratracheal and intraperitoneal immunization routes are most effective in production of IgE antibodies.