ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the balance between positive and negative autoimmunity changes during the life of the animal and is regulated by the production of auto-anti-idiotypic antibody (auto-anti-Id). The increase in the production of auto-anti-Id in the aging immune response could be due to the recognition of a larger proportion of anti-trinitrophenylated idiotopes or, alternatively, a reduced heterogeneity of clonotypes responding to the antigenic determinant assay could contribute to this phenomenon. To determine the cellular regulation of the production of auto-anti-Id in the aged immune response, we first established whether this increase was a trait which was stable upon cell transfer. After removal of auto-anti-Id, antiself-reactivity in the immune cell population obtained from young mice was found to increase modestly. In contrast, removal of auto-anti-Id from aged immune spleen cells led to an increase in anti-self-reactivity ranging from 28 to 42%. Still, these results are as yet inconclusive in determining the exact origin of the anti-self-reactivities.
