Concentration of the Protective Bodies in Antipneumococcus Serum by Means of Specific Precipitation

Abstract

Previous work has shown that the occurrence of a specific precipitin reaction between a serum of one animal species and its antiserum may result in a very definite action on normal or immune antibodies comained in the first (precipitinogenic) serum.Such studies were inspired by the work of Camus and Gley (i), Kossel (2), and Bordet (3), who had shown that antihemolysins were formed by immunization against a hemolytic serum, and were designed to determine whether similar antibodies could be produced to antitoxins, agglutinir~s, precipitins, and the like.Kraus and Eisenberg (4) succeeded in producing an antilactoserum, the action of which was apparently due to the carrying down of the precipitin of the lactoserum with its precipitinogen which had been allowed to interact with the antilactoserum. In other words, the serum of a rabbit immunized against milk when precipitated by the serum of a goat immunized against rabbit serum removes the precipitin for milk from the lactoserum. The first combination was for some reason not effective when a dog-antirabbit serum was employed. These same authors failed, however, to demonstrate fixation of tetanus antitoxin or of typhoid agglutinin in horse serum after precipitating the horse serum by means of rabbit-antihorse serum. Their failure to remove the antitoxin was, however, due to the excess of precipitinogen (horse antitoxin.) employed, an inhibiting factor to precipitate formation that was then unknown. This difficulty was overcome by Dehne and Hamburger (5), who found that diluted (1:5oo) horse antitoxin was entirely removed from the supernatant fluid on producing a precipitate with rabbit-antihorse serum. These experiments were fully corroborated by Krans and Pribram (6), Hamburger (7), and yon Eisler and Tsuru (8), and analogous facts were produced in respect to the fixation of diphtheria antitoxin in horse serum by Weill-Hall6 and Lemaire (9) and by Atkinson and Banzhaf (IO). Experiments which indicate that a similar removal of antitoxin takes place in the body of immunized animals were performed with diphtheria antitoxin by Sacharoff (II) and with tetanus antitoxin iby Dehne and Hamburger (5).Some difference of opinion exists as to the carrying down of agglutinins with a precipitinogen when antiserum is added, the results obtained doubtless depending on technical differences. Thus, Kraus and Eisenberg (4) at first failed to remove immune agglutinins, but later Krans and Pribram (6) succeeded. Von Eisler and Tsuru (8) and Landsteiner and Pra~ek (12) brought down normal *

Specific Precipitation and Mouse Protection in Type I Antipneumococcus Sera

“…(Received for publication, June 17, 1930) Specific precipitation has long been known to occur in antipneumococcus sera showing marked protective power in mice (1), but it has been possible only recently to obtain indications of a parallel variation in these two properties. Thus Friedlander, Sobotka and Banzhaf (2) showed that the number of mouse protection units in certain Type I and Type II antipneumococcus sera varied in the same sense as the "precipitin index."…”