NATURAL ANTISHEEP AMBOCEPTOR AND COMPLE¬ 
MENT IN THE BLOOD OF FOWLS 1 
By F. R. Beaudette and L. D. BuSHNELL, Department of Bacteriology, Kansas Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station 
INTRODUCTION 
The attention of the writers was first directed to the dissolving action 
of fresh chicken serum upon the blood corpuscles of the sheep during 
some hemolytic experiments with the blood serum of chickens known 
to be carriers of Bacterium pullorum. Whether the lytic action of the 
chicken serum was due to the presence of a natural antisheep amboceptor 
or to complement, could not be stated. An endeavor was therefore 
made to determine the presence of these elements in the serum. 
REVIEW OF LITERATURE 
Bordet (2 ) 2 was the first to call attention to the hemolytic and hemag- 
glutinating action of chicken serum upon the cells of other animals. He 
also noted the marked susceptibility of rabbit corpuscles to the action 
of this serum. He was able to produce an antihemolysin that prevented 
the action of chicken serum upon rabbit corpuscles. In discussing the 
presence of sensibilisatrice in normal sera he states that it is necessary 
to be cautious in drawing conclusions. Because a serum agglutinates 
blood cells does not necessarily mean that they are sensitized to the 
action of alexin. For example, he states that rabbit corpuscles, although 
strongly agglutinated by chicken serum heated to 55 0 C., are then no 
more susceptible to the lytic action of normal guinea-pig serum than are 
rabbit corpuscles untreated by heated chicken serum. 
Muller (5) verified Bordet's observation, but concluded that the 
hemolytic action of chicken serum is to be ascribed to an amboceptor- 
alexin combination. This author did not succeed in separating ambo¬ 
ceptor and alexin by use of absorption in the cold as recommended by 
Ehrlich. Muller sought to demonstrate the presence of the two com¬ 
ponents by adding an amount of fresh chicken serum that would not 
hemolyze a given amount of rabbit cells and by the addition of inactivated 
(heated) serum so to reinforce the hemolytic strength that solution of 
the blood corpuscles would take place. His results were negative. 
The negative results were thought to be due to the fact that chicken 
serum has so little alexin that it could not activate the amboceptor present 
and would naturally exert no effect. To prove this point he increased 
the alexin of the chicken serum by injecting the birds with various sub¬ 
stances such as peptone, bouillon and aleuronat. By this method the 
alexin extent was increased so that from 0.03 to 0.07 cc. of this fresh 
serum would cause complete hemolysis of rabbit corpuscles in the pres¬ 
ence of 0.2 to 0.3 cc. of heated chicken serum. The fresh serum alone 
was less active than the fresh serum plus heated serum. The heated 
5 Received for publication Jan. 23, 1924. Contribution No. 54 from the Bacterialogical Laboratories, 
Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. 
2 Reference is made by number (italic) to “Literature cited,” p. 715. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
(709) 
Vol. XXVII, No. 9 
Mar. x, 1924 
Key No. Kans.—43 
