Precipitin response to human serum by a rabbit population. Variation in response of normal rabbits to a primary series of injections. Sam-TR-66-28.

Abstract : The report details the quantitative results of precipitin production in a rabbit population of 264 animals when each animal was given the same primary injection series with comparable human serum pools and the antiserums were reacted with the homologous antigen. This empirical study will help to anticipate the range of rabbit response in more limited investigations with complex antigens. The tolerance limit calculations are very large for precipitin production when random samples (groups of 10) from a population of rabbits are injected with complex antigen mixtures. The limits indicated that one can be 95% confident that at least 95% of the groups will have a mean total antigen-antibody precipitate nitrogen between 2,400 and 5,900 micrograms N/ml., if analyzed as herein described. These values pertain to the sum of all precipitinogen-precipitin reactions from antigen excess through antibody excess. This large variability makes it possible to unknowingly obtain groups of 10 animals whose response is different from that experienced in other similar studies. (Author)