Production of adjuvant-induced ascitic fluid in the white rat.

A simple method of inducing ascites in the laboratory white rat by intraperitoneal administration of Freund's complete adjuvant is described. Female rats were found to produce ascitic fluid more reliably than males with an average volume yield of 60 ml per rat. The performance of immune rat ascitic fluids in complement fixation, hemagglutination-inhibition, neutralization and immunodiffusion tests was found to be excellent.