The use of nonhuman primates for studies of reagin
The work of Layton6-11 demonstrating passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) in nonhuman primates with human atopic serum has been confirmed and expanded. The reaction appears to be a measure of reaginic activity; the sera from untreated atopic individuals utilized in these studies contained no detectable precipitating antibodies and no detectable tanned-cell antibodies to the antigen employed. Heating the sera to 56° C. for 1 hour destroyed their ability to produce PCA. The same immunoglobulin fraction, γ1A, believed to contain reaginic activity is implicated by these studies as responsible for producing PCA in nonhuman primates. PCA could not be produced with γ2 and γ1M immunoglobulin fractions from these same sera. There appears to be a difference between the sensitivity of the techniques of Prausnitz-Küstner and monkey PCA as a measure of reaginic activity, the P.K. technique manifesting greater sensitivity with the sera used in these studies. Both nonhuman primate PCA and P.K. exhibited the same specificity with the antigens used in these studies. Passive systemic anaphylaxis can also be produced in monkeys by intravenous sensitization with human atopic serum and with a fraction of this serum containing predominantly γ1A globulin. © 1965.