Cellular localization of immunoglobulins with different allotypic specificities in rabbit lymphoid tissues.

The cellular localization of allotypes in rabbit lymphoid tissues has been studied by immunofluorescence. In heterozygous animals the double staining for two allotypes controlled by allelic genes (A1 and A2; A4 and A5; A4 and A6) has shown the existence of two populations of plasma cells, one containing one allotype and the other the alternative one. The localization in different cells of immunoglobulins marked by allelic allotypic specificities has been confirmed by microspectrography of single cells. An exception to this rule was given by the presence in the germinal centers of lymphoid follicles of apparently uniform mixtures of products of the two allelic genes. Double staining for two allotypes controlled by genes at different loci showed, instead, the presence of many cells containing both allotypes; the number of these cells was highest in doubly homozygotes, in the other it was consistent with random association of non-allelic specificities. In addition double staining for one allotype and gamma G globulins in the lymphoid tissues of rabbits homozygous at the a or at the b locus, has shown the presence of cells containing immunoglobulins that lack one allotype.