The Wassermann Antigen and Related “Alcohol-Soluble” Antigens

The Rapid Production of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis in Rhesus Monkeys by Injection of Heterologous and Homologous Brain Tissue With Adjuvants

“…It has been suggested that antibodies may be formed to homologous tissue proteins as a result of bacterial or viral infection (24) and indeed the findings that antibodies to normal lung tissue are produced in patients with primary atypical pneumonia (25) and that antibodies to human heart tissue were present in 75 per cent of patients with acute rheumatic fever (26) may be instances of such a mechanism. Many investigators consider positive Wassermann reactions to result from the liberation of the Wassermann antigen from the tissues as a consequence of syphilis or other diseases associated with positive reactions (27,28). The demonstration by Kidd and Friedewald (29) that normal rabbit sera contained antibodies to a variety of tissue antigens also lends support to this concept.…”