Antibodies to DNA and a Synthetic Polydeoxyribonucleotide Produced by Oligodeoxyribonucleotides

Abstract

Calf-thymus DNA was degraded into small fragments (oligodeoxyribonucleotides); the fragments were treated with methylated bovine serum albumin, and the complexes so formed were emulsified in complete Freund's adjuvant and injected into rabbits. The serums of the immunized rabbits contained antibodies that reacted with homologous and heterologous unfragmented heat-denatured DNA, and also with a synthetic polydeoxyadenylate-thymidylate. Relatively small DNA fragments (of the order of tetra-hexanucleotide) can thus serve as haptens for the production of DNA antibodies; this finding increases the probability of producing antibodies specific for unique sequences of nucleotides.