The Passive Transfer of Immediate Type Hypersensitivity from Man to Other Primates.

There have been various obstacles to investigating the immediate type of spontaneous hypersensitivity in man. These have included the lack of in vitro methods of measuring allergic antibody and a limitation on the types of investigations that can be done in man without risk. Models of hypersensitivity using immunized animals have not involved antibody of the type occurring in spontaneous allergy in man. The passive transfer of immediate cutaneous reactivity [Prausnitz-Kustner reaction ( 1 ) ] to other human subjects has remained the classical method of investigation of allergic antibody. This technique is limited to the study of cutaneous wheal and erythema reactions and carries with it the risk of transmission of certain viral diseases. By this method, allergic antibody has been characterized as a nonprecipitating, heat labile, skin-sensitizing antibody that persists at the injected site for long periods of time (2). The nature of the serum fraction containing allergic antibody, believed to be a y1A type of immunoglobulin by several investigators (3), has been the subject of controversy in regard to either electrophoretic migration or sedimentation characteristics as demonstrated by ultracentrifugal analysis. The availability of an animal model with the immediate type of spontaneous hypersensitivity as found in dogs with spontaneous pollen hyper-