ABSTRACT
Anti-Salmonella antibody of rabbits was the subject of pioneering studies on the idiotypy, and such led to the initial definition of the idiotypic specificity of antibody. Bacterial lipopolysaccharide antigen is one of the most potent immunogens. This complex macromolecule induces antibodies with diverse specificities and possesses, in itself, diverse biological activities. Allotype suppression is inducible for both a and b locus allotypes located on heavy and light chains, respectively, and suppressed expression of a given allotype is always associated with compensatory increase in other non-suppressed allotypes. Mechanism of allotype suppression by suppressor cells might expectedly be similar to that in mice. Antibody response is heterogeneous in general, but idiotypic markers of antibody make it feasible to analyse overlapped oscillations composing a single immune response. Even if an overall response may be seemingly steady, each of idiotypically defined clones is changing in an oscillatory manner.
