USE OF POLYVINYL ALCOHOLS AS TOLEROGENIC CARRIERS FOR SUPPRESSION OF ANTI-HAPTEN IGE ANTIBODY-RESPONSES

Conjugates of haptens [i.e. the dinitrophenyl (DNP) or benzylpenicilloyl (BPO) groups] with polyvinyl alcohols (PVA), with molecular weights in the range of 10-14 × 103 daltons, were shown to suppress not only the primary anti-hapten IgE and hemagglutinating antibody responses of B6D2F1 mice but, more importantly, also the ongoing antibody responses of presensitized mice. For this study, mice were immunized with the corresponding haptenated-ovalbumin (OA) conjugates (i.e. DNP3-OA and BPO4-OA) in presence of Al(OH)3. In addition to the fact that the tolerogenic PVA-hapten conjugates did suppress exclusively hapten-specific responses, i.e. without affecting the anti-OA IgE antibody levels, their remarkable feature was that they were immunosuppressive even at the low average epitope density of about one. The immunosuppressive effectiveness of these tolerogenic conjugates was dose dependent, e.g. complete suppression of ongoing anti-hapten IgE responses was achieved with a single dose of 1 mg of the appropriate hapten-PVA conjugate. © 1979.