Suppression of IgE antibody response by the fatty acid-modified antigen

Ovalbumin (OA) of hens was chemically coupled with fatty acids (lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid). These hydrophobically modified antigens were unable to react with mouse antiserum against native OA and were incapable of eliciting primary and secondary anti-OA antibody responses in BALB/c mice. Preadministration of these modified antigens, especially of palmitoyl OA (OA-pal), suppressed both primary and secondary anti-OA IgE antibody responses without affecting IgG antibody production. Administration of OA-pal after the primary immunization resulted in a rapid decrease of the ongoing anti-OA IgE antibody production and inhibited the anamnestic anti-OA IgE antibody response upon subsequent immunization with OA. The passive transfer of spleen cells from OA-pal-treated animals with OA-primed spleen cells suppressed the adoptive secondary anti-OA IgE antibody response in irradiated recipients. The suppressive effect was abrogated by treatment with an anti-T-cell antiserum indicating that suppressor T cells were primed by administration of hydrophobically modified antigens.