IgE responses in the serum and gastric lymph of sheep infected with Teladorsagia circumcincta

The IgE response of naive or previously infected sheep to 50000 infective l arvae of Teladorsagia circumcincta was monitored in serum and gastric lymph using a monoclonal antibody generated to recombinant ovine IgE in a dot bl ot assay. In 4/5 naive sheep, lymph and serum IgE concentrations increased from days 8 and 14 after infection, respectively. In most previously infect ed sheep, the IgE response to challenge was more rapid, although not necess arily greater than that following a primary infection. IgE concentrations i n lymph were some 4-fold higher than in serum indicating that its source wa s the mucosa or draining nodes.