Localization of Liver Specific Antibody in Normal and 3&′-DAB-treated Rats

INJECTION of anti-rat-liver serum into rats led to the induction of liver tumour, whereas the injection of anti-serum against 3′-methyl-4-dimethylaminoazobenzene (3′-DAB)-treated rat liver failed to produce any such tumour 1 . It was postulated that repeated exposures to tissue specific antisera might have induced adaptive loss of tissue specific antigen with malignancy as an essential consequence. It was also thought that the tissue specific antigen was modified by haptenic binding with 3′-DAB, making the antibody against it innocuous to normal liver. The present investigation was undertaken to examine the nature of localization of antibodies against normal and 3–-DAB-treated rat liver, in the liver and other tissues of both normal and 3′-DAB-treated rats.