A serological test for the assay of Neisseria antibody would be a valuable asset in the study of neisserial infections. Such a test, using bentonite particles sensitized with phenol-extracted and acetone-precipitated antigens from Neisseria gonorrhoeae or Neisseria meningitidis, has been developed. It has proved to be sensitive and specific in titrations against species-specific immune rabbit sera.In a survey of 454 human sera received from the Special Treatment Clinic (Ottawa), 77% of male gonorrhoea patients and 78% of the females had circulating gonococcal antibodies detectable by this test. Ninety-six percent of the control sera were negative. It is suggested that the bentonite technique could be used as an adjunct in the diagnosis of gonorrhoea.
Neisseria Chemically Defined Medium (NCDM) has been used routinely in our laboratory for a variety of purposes. The present report describes the development of NCDM agar, wherein the NCDM base is sterilized by filtration and defined supplements and agar are added. The medium is transparent and both meningococci and gonococci grow within 72 h. When grown on NCDM agar, Types 2 and 3 gonococcal colonies tend to revert to Type 1. The serological grouping of meningococci with specific antisera is not affected by growth on this medium.Parallel investigations on the growth of these species in liquid NCDM demonstrated that the yield of Neisseria gonorrhoeae is enhanced when the medium is sterilized by filtration.
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