Experimental Production of Rabbit Anti-Guinea-Pig Epidermal Cell Sera. Comparison to Pemphigus Antibodies

Anti-epidermal cell sera (AES) were obtained by immunizing rabbit with enzymatically dispersed, viable guinea-pig epidermal cells followed by absorption with guinea-pig red blood cells, spleen and thymus cells and liver powders. Complement-mediated cytotoxicity and immunofluorescene demonstrated that AES were directed towards cell surface antigens specific for stratified squamous epithelia of guinea pigs and cross reacted with the corresponding tissues of humans and monkeys. Immunofluorescene revelaed that AES reacted with Hassall's corpucles and surrounding epithelial cells of the guinea-pig thymus which seemed to share common antigens reactive with pemphigus antibody (PA) were demonstrated by membrane immunofluorescence to be present on the epidermal cell surface, PA showed no cytotoxicity to guinea-pig and human epidermal cells. Re-treatment of isolated epidermal cells with trypsin showed that antigens ractive with PA were more susceptible to the enzyme than those reactive with AES. These findings suggest that the cell surface antigens binding AES are different from the antigens which bind PA