Concentration of Protective Bodies. 115 



Abstracts of the Communications, Pacific Coast Branch. 



Seventh meeting. 

 70 (1002) 



Concentration of the protective bodies in anti-pneumococcus serum 

 by means of specific precipitation. 



By Frederick P. Gay, m.d., and Henry T. Chickering, m.d. 



[From the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research.] 



The addition of a water-clear extract of pneumococcus to the 

 homologous antiserum produces a voluminous precipitate which 

 carries down with it the agglutinins and practically the totality 

 of the protective bodies against pneumococcus infection in 

 animals. This precipitate when washed and resuspended in saline 

 solution to the original volume of serum protects as well as the 

 whole serum. The protein content of such solutions has varied 

 from 0.09 to 0.34 per cent, as contrasted with about 6 per cent, in 

 the original serum. The solution of this precipitate is not neces- 

 sary to insure protection, and when produced by dilute alkali 

 (NaOH) frequently destroys the immune bodies. 



This concentration of the immune bodies differs from the 

 method described by Dehne and Hamburger 1 for fixing tetanus 

 antitoxin by means of antihorse serum and similar results with 

 diphtheria antitoxin described by Weill, — Halle and Lemaire 2 in 

 that the immune serum serves as a precipitin and not as precipi- 

 togen. By this reversal of reaction a corresponding reversal of 

 dosage is possible which renders the method practical for con- 

 centrating the immune bodies for possible therapeutic use. An 

 additional advantage of this method over concentration by chem- 

 ical precipitation is that it can be rapidly and aseptically prepared 

 and has a much lower protein content. 



'Dehne and Hamburger, "Experimental Untersuchungen iiber die Folgen 

 parenteralen Einverleibung von Pferdeserum," Wein. Klin. Wochens., 1904, XVII, 

 807. 



2 Weill, Halle and Lemaire, (1) "Les Conditions de persistance de l'lmmunite 

 passive antidipterique. Ses relations avec la presence du serum antitoxique dans le 

 sang et avec l'apparition de precipitine;" (2) "Antitoxine et Precipitine," Comptes 

 rend, de Soc. de Biol., 1906, LXI, 114, 407. 



