1988 Volume 17 Issue 2 Pages 550-552
To overcome the disadvantage of cross-linking of glutaraldehyde (GA), polyepoxy compounds were newly introduced. However, the effects of crosslinking of polyepoxy compounds on antigenicity has not been clear. In this study, the changes of the antigenicity of vascular xenograft treated with GA or glycerol polyglycidyl ether (GPE), one of polyepoxy compounds, were examined. Fresh artery of a donor dog was cut into three pieces. As test antigen, two of them were treated with GA (GA-group, n=7) or GPE (GPE, n=7) and the Temaing was untreated (N, n=7). As a positive control, the donor lymphocytes were used (Ly, n=4). DDY mice were inoculated with these antigens twice and then their sera were collected. As a negative control, normal mouse sera were used (MS, n=5). Using these sera, donor lymphocytes which had the antigens shared on artery and lymphocytes were stained with FITC labeled anti-mouse IgG antibody and analysed by flow cytometry. The maximum ratio of the stained lymphocytes was counted and calculated in percentage. In MS-group, the percentage was 0.4±0.3% (mean±S. D.), while in Ly-group, it showed 90.3±6.5%. In N-group, the percentage was 32.0±22.0% which was significantly higher than that in GA-group (1.7±1.1%, p<0.005) and GPE-group (2.1±3.1%, p<0.005). These results show that GPE has excellent properties to reduce the antigenicity of biological materials for medical use no less than GA.
