A Study of Non-specific Complement-fixation with particular reference to the Interaction of Normal Serum and certain Non-antigenic substances

• Published in: Journal of Hygiene
• Main Authors: Mackie, T. J., Finkelstein, M. H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1928
• Subjects: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health; Immunology; Carbonic acid
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022172400009530; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022172400009530

1. When a solution of commercial peptone is substituted for antigen in a complement-fixation test with the unheated normal serum of certain species (man, ox, sheep, horse, rabbit, white rat), a definite fixation reaction occurs both at 37° C. and at 0° C. In the ox, sheep, horse and rabbit this property of serum is partially stable at 55° C., but normal human serum and the serum of the white rat are inactive after heating at this temperature. The property is resident mainly in the carbonic-acid-insoluble globulins of the serum. 2. The same results are obtained when ethyl alcohol diluted with several volumes of normal saline solution is substituted for antigen in a complement-fixation test with normal serum. 3. Analysis of these reactions shows a close correspondence with complement-fixation by the sera of normal animals plus the Wassermann “antigen”—the Wassermann reaction of normal animals. 4. Marked complement-fixation effects are also obtained with heated normal serum of the rabbit, ox, sheep, horse plus cholesterol suspension, and particularly cholesterolised-peptone, these effects occurring in parallel with those produced by serum plus alcohol-saline, peptone solutions and the Wassermann “antigen.” The heated normal serum of the pig, white rat and guinea-pig do not exhibit these reactions, and the same applies to heated normal human serum. Unheated pig serum fails to react. Such results also elicit a close relationship between these non-specific reactions and the Wassermann reactions of normal animals. 5. The reacting property is absent from the serum (heated and unheated) of young rabbits during the first 2 to 3 weeks of life, but appears soon after this ( e.g. by the 37th day) and is progressive in development. Its development in early life runs parallel to that of the natural haemolytic property of the serum for sheep's blood (due to a natural antibody-like substance). The two properties are, however, independent as illustrated by absorption tests. 6. Besides the agents referred to above as capable of ...