PRODUCTION OF ANTIPNEUMOCOCCIC SERUM 549 



Several different lots of antipneumococcic serum, bivalent for 

 Types I and II, have been concentrated by ammonium sulfate at 

 the Massachusetts Antitoxin and Vaccine Laboratory. The per- 

 centage recovery in all cases "has been high, averaging approxi- 

 mately 90 per cent of the original antibody and, furthermore, the 

 products have possessed the desirable physical characters. Chill- 

 reactions have followed the administration of some of these lots, 

 however, in a fairly high percentage of cases. Although it has 

 been possible by reconcentration processes to render batches rela- 

 tively free from this undesirable property, it is not definitely clear 

 that the method was at fault. 



Sodium Sulfate: In Banzhaf's 70 experiments it was found that 

 solutions of precipitate obtained from antipneumococcic serum by 

 adding 12.5 per cent dried sodium sulfate contained after dialysis 

 only 8 to 10 per cent of the total immune bodies. If, however, a 

 filtrate of globulins, soluble in 12.5 per cent sodium sulfate, was 

 treated with sodium sulfate up to 18.5 per cent at a temperature 

 of 36°, the preparation after dialysis contained about 90 per cent 

 of the total antibody. Felton (1928) 403 reported detailed observa- 

 tions on the concentration of serum by the use of sodium sulfate, 

 which method gave a product suitable for intravenous therapy. 

 In a later publication by the same author (1931), 408 some disad- 

 vantages of the antibody solution prepared by the sodium sulfate 

 method were acknowledged. 



Banzhaf and Klein 72 made a further report on the use of sodium 

 sulfate in a normality of about 0.05 for precipitating dialyzed 

 antiserum. In the process, the reaction was corrected to pH 5.0 to 

 5.1 and the precaution was believed to result in a chill-free prod- 

 uct. Savino, Negrete, and Acuna, 1221 using plasma instead of se- 

 rum, applied a sodium sulfate method of concentration substan- 

 tially the same as that of Felton. Although the method undoubtedly 

 marked an advance in refinement procedures, it was somewhat ex- 

 pensive, and difficulties attended its execution particularly in the 

 relative insolubility of the antibody at different stages of the re- 



