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Data presented in this report indicate that freezing of male accessory tissue in rabbits which have been previously sensitized by injection of saline extracts of rabbit male accessory glands material, elicits the formation almost exclusively of the IgG class of immunoglobulin and constitutes, therefore, a booster type of antigenic stimulation in these animals. It is suggested that the marked decrease in antibody activity shown by most of the iso-immunized rabbits following freezing of their male accessory tissue could be attributed to immune complex for- marion between the circulating antibodies and an autoantigen that may be released as a result of the cryo-immunization. An alternative explanation for the decrease in antibody activity is that the antibodies complex with the homologous auto- antigen which is fixed in situ but exposed in the freeze damaged tissue. The possibility that the antigenicity of antigen-antibody complexes may be a factor in the abrupt increase in antibody titre, from the minimum level at the 3rd or 4th day to a peak at the 7th or 8th day after cryo-immunization, is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antisera taken at various intervals over a 21-day period, from six rabbits subjected to cryosurgery of the accessory glands, were passed through columns of Sephadex G-200. The appropriate pools were made, adjusted to the initial serum volumes, and tested by tanned cell haemagglutination for antibody to rabbit accessory glands antigen. In every instance it was possible to demonstrate a predominant 19S activity in the bleedings obtained at 5–8 days; in most of the rabbits the presence of 78 activity could be observed in the later bleedings, and it was found to be the major form at these later stages in the immune response.