ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to report on the various experimental systems employed to study the immunoregulatory role of anti-Id antibodies. The immunoregulatory role of the anti-Id antibody was suggested by several investigators working in independent Id systems who observed that an auto-anti-idiotypic (auto-anti-Id) response coincided with a decrease in the Id-positive component of a humoral immune response. In addition, this Id-anti-Id interaction would also serve as a signal to activate a T-cell-mediated suppressive mechanism which would be specific for that VH region, but depending on the specificity of the T-cell repertoire, not necessarily for the same idiotope which the monoclonal antibody sees. Indeed, the enhancing ability of anti-Id antibodies on Id expression was already seen by investigators studying Id suppression. The effects of anti-Id antibodies on the development of the immune repertoire can be examined by exposing the developing immune systems of neonatal or even fetal animals to exogenously administered anti-Id.
