“Normal” Antibodies which react with Heterogenetic Bacillary Antigen

Abstract

STUDIES have been reported of a bacteriogenic transfusion reaction¹ in which the recipient's red cells became poly-agglutinable, apparently as a result of the presence of a species of Bacillus in the donor bottle which was capable of altering erythrocytes in vitro in a similar way. It was suggested that modification of the cells by bacterial antigen with subsequent haemolysis by “normal” anti-bacterial antibody might provide the mechanism for such reactions. In further investigations², heterogenetic antigens from various genera and species of Gram-positive bacteria were examined, some prepared by the methods of Rantz³ and Neter⁴, and were shown to react with anti-bacterial antibodies found in normal human sera. Crude preparations of at least two such antigens, present in bacilli and in Staphylococcus aureus, as well as a third, found only in Streptococcus, reacted with antibodies in sera of practically 100 per cent of apparently normal persons. Whether this high frequency of reactivity resulted from the cumulative effect of several antibody specificities or from a single specificity was re-examined with purified antigen.