Abstract
Rabbit antisera were prepared against saline extracts of laying hen ovary from which follicles above 1mm in diameter had been removed. The Oucterlony double gel diffusion technique and the immunoelectrophoretic analysis were employed to detect the ovary specific antigens. The unabsorbed antisera developed the following numbers of precipitin bands: anti-ovary versus laying hen ovary, 7 bands; anti-ovary versus other tissue extracts or sera, 4 to 6 bands; anti-ovary versus mammalian ovary, 0 band.
Absorption of the antisera with cock serum, laying hen serum and spleen was necessary to detect antibodies directed against the ovary specific antigen. The following numbers of precipitin bands were observed when antisera absorbed with cock serum were allowed to react against the tissue extracts or sera: anti-ovary versus ovary, 4 bands; anti-ovary versus other tissue extracts and laying hen serum, 1 or 2 bands. The following number of precipitin bands were observed when antisera absorbed with laying hen serum were allowed to react against the tissue extracts or sera: anti-ovary versus ovary, 2 bands; anti-ovary versus liver, spleen and lung, 1 band. One of the 2 bands seen in ovary formed a reaction of identity with liver, spleen and lung.
The antiserum absorbed with cock serum and spleen developed 1 band against ovary only. These results was interpreted as indicating that the ovary contained a tissue-specific antigen. Immunoelectrophoresis revealed that the mobility of this ovary tissue-specific antigen almost corresponded to that of β-globbulin.
