[The nature of serum factor precipitating autologous alpha-globulins in rabbits]

The nature of serum factor, resulted from the immune response to human albumin being a precipitant of auto-alpha-globulins in rabbits, have been studied. The use of ion exchange, immunoaffinity chromatography and immunoelectrophoresis has shown, that antibodies to human albumin, carrying the binding site to alpha-globulin in antigen-binding fragment are the factor responsible for alpha-globulin precipitation. The synthesis of antibodies cross-reacting to alpha-globulin gives the evidence of the selective derangement of tolerance to one of organism self antigens during the immune response to heterologous antigen.