Characterization of syngeneic anti-idiotypic antibody against the idiotype fo BALB/c myeloma protein J558.

BALB/c mice were immunized against the idiotype of BALB/c myeloma J55,. Syngeneic, specific anti-idiotypic antibodies against this germ line idiotype were shown by the isoelectric focusing technique to be markedly heterogeneous. In fact, the heterogeneity of isogeneic anti-idiotypic sera appeared to be comparable to those of allogeneic anti-J558 sera, raised in A/J and CB20 mice. As a rule, individual mice exhibit different clonal spectra. By spleen cell transfer experiments, each individual spectrum of clones could be expanded in order to arrive at an estimate of the size of anti-idiotypic repertoires. These were found to be of the order of 7-16 different anti-idiotypic clones for an individual BALB/c mouse. From the infrequency of clonal repetition we conclude that the repertoire of the BALB/c strain must be well in excess of one hundred anti-idiotypic molecular species.