Induction Antibodies of Anti-tobacco Mosaic Virus in Mice by Rabbit Antiidiotypic Antibodies

Since their original discovery (1, 2), idiotypes have been studied for two main purposes. As markers of immunoglobulin variable regions, recurrent idiotypes have been used to unravel the genetics of antibody diversity. Furthermore, it is likely that the immune system uses its own idiotypic diversity for regulatory purposes: idiotypic-antiidiotypic interactions play a role in the logics of lymphocyte interactions (3). Idiotype network concepts have inspired many works and have allowed specific manipulations of the immune system (4, 5). For example, minute amounts of antiidiotypic specificities raised against recurrent idiotypes can profoundly modify subsequent immune responses (6). In the case of idiotypes as individual markers, it is possible to induce silent idiotypes by the idiotypic cascade. The first studies were done in rabbits (7, 8) and were extended to mice systems (9-12) with very similar results. All these experiments show that it is possible to reprogram the immune response towards a predetermined goal. To further investigate these problems and to study the evolution of idiotype networks, we addressed the following question: can we bypass the species barrier and induce the expression of private rabbit idiotypes in mice? Our results show that this approach is indeed feasible using antiidiotypic antibodies that do not display at all the properties of internal images, using either the idiotypic cascade or rabbit antiidiotypic antibodies coupled to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) 1 (13, 14).