Since Pangborn (1941a, b) succeeded in isolating cardiolipin and purified lecithin from beef hearts, these two substances, in conjunction with purified cholesterol, have been the subject of numerous investigations with regard to their suitability as antigens in serological tests for syphilis.Cardiolipin is a complex phosphatide, free from nitrogen, soluble in ether, chloroform, and alcohol, but insoluble in acetone. When used alone, cardiolipin has an anticomplementary effect (Maltaner and Maltaner, 1945). Purified lecithin alone has no antigenic effect (Pangborn, 1948); according to other writers (Brown, 1946), lecithin was found to produce weak reactions with syphilitic sera from rabbits and human beings, but positive reactions were also found with sera from non-syphilitic patients. A mixture of cardiolipin and lecithin is not anticomplementary and acts as an antigen (Brown, 1944); the addition of cholesterol to a non-optimal mixture of cardiolipin and lecithin increases the antigenic effect. The addition of increasing amounts of cholesterol to an optimal adjustment of cardiolipin and lecithin results in a gradual decrease in activity, and addition of cholesterol to non-optimal adjustments increases the antigenic reactivity of the mixture up to a certain optimum, after which any further addition of cholesterol will cause a decline in activity (Brown, 1944). There are several reports on the suitability of the cardiolipin antigen for the sero-diagnosis ofsyphilis
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