Abstract
Summary
Antisera were available which had been prepared in guinea pigs and other animal species against established human cell strains such as HeLa, etc. By means of agar-immunodiffusion tests numerous cellular antigens had been denned. Individual sera had been analyzed regarding the antibody specificities they contained. In the present study, selected reference sera were absorbed with pooled human erythrocytes and then subjected to immunodiffusion tests against cell antigen extracts of known composition. Disappearance or significant weakening of specific precipitation lines indicated successful absorption of a specific antibody and, hence, the presence of the corresponding antigen on the erythrocyte membrane. This was established for 8 out of 15 specific cellular antigens investigated. An attempt to correlate precipitating and species-specifically hemagglutinating antibodies was in part satisfactory. It was emphasized in the discussion that pre-cipitable cellular antigens exist in soluble form whereas the corresponding antigens on the erythrocyte membrane are structurally bound.
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