110 



INTRODUCTION TO IMMUNOCHEMICAL SPECIFICITY 



TABLE 8-4 



Carbohydrate Structural LInits of Specific O Antigens (Endotoxins) of Salmonella 



Groups A, B, D, and O'^ 



(Heptoses and aminosugars not inchided) 



" Westphal, 1960. 



the carbohydrate antigen. This does not mean that other sugars can- 

 not be terminal, for glucose and rhamnose can occur in this position. 



As would have been expected on the basis of what we have learned 

 in earlier chapters of this book, the most informative way of studying 

 the terminal sugar of these antigens was found to be by the inhibition 

 reaction. Staub, Westphal, and colleagues (Staub and Tinelli, 1957; 

 Staub et al., 1959) took advantage of the fact that degree of in- 

 hibition can be measured quantitatively if the reaction inhibited is 

 the precipitation of a soluble antigen by a precipitating antibody, 

 see above, p. 20 ; they made use of soluble antigens obtained by 

 acetic acid lysis of the microorganisms and purification by Freeman's 

 method (1942) of the product (Table 8-5). 



In this table PsTy stands for the polysaccharide extracted from 

 5". typhosa, PsTyB for the polysaccharide from S. schottmuelleri 

 (formerly paratyphoid B), and PsTyox for the carbohydrate of 



