HEMOLYTIC AMBOCEl'TOR 215 



combined.'"' Hemolysis hy iimmine sera takes place l)est in a medium 

 with a reaction corresponding to that of the blood, acids being more 

 iiarmful than alkalies; with unfavorable reaction the complement does 

 not unite with the aml^oceptor, although the latter unites with the 

 corpuscle.'^ 



The Amboceptor. — Amboceptor is, a.s a rule, destroyed hy heating to 70" or 

 liifiiher.'^ Its place of origin is unknown. Metchnikolt holds that it is derived 

 chiefly from the leucocytes, in support of which view is the fact that leucocytes 

 dissolve red corpuscles after ingesting them; however, other phagocytic cells 

 have the same power, particularly endothelial cells, and it is an open question 

 whether the intracellular digestion of engulfed cells is the same process as extracel- 

 lular hemolysis; prol)ably it is not, for there seem to be more disintegrative changes 

 in intracellular digestion than in hemolysis. Quinan^^ found that the diffusible 

 constituents of hemolytic serum played no role beyond that of maintaining os- 

 motic pressure. He was unable, however, to localize the immune body in any of 

 the protein constituents, and Liebermann and Fenyves.sy^" believe that they 

 obtained the amboceptor in a protein-free condition, in which it behaves like 

 a weak acid. Amboceptors are insoluble in lipoids or lipoid solvents (Meyer),*' 

 and they move towards the cathode in an electric field, as do other antibodies. *- 

 The amboceptor complement reaction resembles a bimolecular reaction wliich is 

 accelerated bj' its end products (v. Krogh).*' Many of the effects of hemolytic 

 amboceptors can be duplicated with silicic acid;^^ and a dye, brilliant green, may 

 in minute quantities sensitize corpuscles so that they are hemolyzed by very 

 small amounts of normal serum, or by lecithin.^^ 



The amboceptors of normally hemolytic serum seem to be no different from 

 those in immune serum, and amboceptors of one animal can combine with comple- 

 ment furnished by the serum of an entirely different animal. It is the amboceptor 

 alone that gives the specific nature to the reaction, and, as is the case with all 

 other immunizations, it is very difficult to secure antibodies by immunizing an 

 animal with blood from another animal of its own species, isohemolysiris. The 

 place of origin of hemolysins is unknown, as with other antibodies, but that it is 

 not in the blood seems to have been established conclusively by Hektoen and 

 Carlson.** Immune hemolysins cannot pass from the mother to the fetus before 

 birth*" but they can be transmitted through the colostrum (Famulener).*^ 



Although Ehrlich held that the union between cell and amboceptor is pureh' 

 chemical and follows ordinary chemical laws, especially the law of multiple pro- 

 portions, Bordet and other French observers have claimed that the union between 

 amboceptor and corpuscle is physical and not chemical.*^ Probably the union is 



*'' Kosakai, Jour. Immunol., 1918 (3), 109. 



*'' Michaehs and Skwirsk}', Zeit. Immunitat., 1909 (4), 357. 



^^ Ultraviolet light destroys immune hemolysin (Stines and Abelin, Zeit. 

 Immunitat., 1914 (20), 598). 



" Hofmeister's Beitr., 1904 (5), 95. 



*° Jahresber. d. Immunitat., 1911 (7), 2. 



*' Ibid., 1909, Vol. 3. 



" Teague and Buxton, Jour. Exper. Med., 1907 (9), 254. 



" Biochem. Zeit., 1909 (22), 132. 



" Landsteiner and Rock, Zeit. Immunitat., 1912 (14), 14. 



** Browning and Mackie, Zeit. Immunitat., 1914 (21), 422. 



*« Jour. Infect. Dis., 1910 (7), 319. 



" See Sherman concerning normal antibodies in the fetus. Ibid., 1918 (22), 534). 



"76id, 1912 (10), 332. 



^' Bang and Forssmann (Hofmeister's Beitr., 1906 (8), 238) suggest that the 

 amboceptor merely renders the corpuscle permeable for the complement, perhaps 

 through action on the lipoid membrane; the complement then acts directly upon 

 some constituent of the corpuscle, without the amboceptor acting as a combining 

 substance in any way. They found that the substance in blood which stimulates 

 the antibody formation in the case of hemolysin formation, is chemically separable 

 from the substance in blood which unites with these antibodies; therefore, they 

 conclude, the "receptors" of cells are not identical with the antibodies. (See con- 

 troversy with Ehrlich in IMiinch. nied. Woch., "N'ols. 56 and 57.) 



