Antibody production and catabolism in uraemia.

A method for the production of chronic uraemia in mice is described. Production of humoral antibody has been studied in uraemic mice in response to a primary and secondary challenge with sheep red cells and in response to intraperitoneal and subcutaneous bovine serum albumin (BSA) in complete Freund's adjuvant. In uraemic animals the response to sheep red cells was slightly reduced compared with controls in both the primary and secondary responses. Similarly, the responses to intraperitoneal BSA and subcutaneous BSA in adjuvant was slightly reduced in the uraemic group. The catabolic rate of purified [I] mouse IgG was normal in uraemic animals, indicating that the lower titre of humoral antibody was not due to increased catabolism of immunoglobulin in uraemia.