The Production of Anti-Human Leukemic Serum in Rabbits

Injection of normal human blood constituents into neonatal rabbits resulted in immunologic tolerance to those constituents. Subsequently, the rabbits were immunized with a series of injections of buffy coat from patients with granulocytic leukemia. Tests of these rabbits' serum were done in Ouchterlony plates, and in most cases, showed a response to buffy coat from patients with acute myelogenous leukemia, without a comparable response to normal human buffy coat. Skin tests generally confirmed the Ouchterlony plate findings. It appears that buffy coat from patients with acute myelogenous leukemia is adequate both for inducing heterologous antibody formation, and for combining with such antibodies in the test situations used. On the other hand, buffy coat from patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia appears to be adequate only for inducing heterologous antibody formation, but not for combining with such antibodies in the test situations used. Some of the implications of these observations are discussed.