Hemagglutination with Adenovirus Serotypes Belonging to Rosen's Subgroups II and III 1

Abstract

Summary

The hemagglutination by adenovirus types 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 (subgroup III), and 9, 15 (subgroup II) was studied. Serotype 9 displayed, as should be expected, a complete agglutination of human red cells. In addition these cells were agglutinated partially by all the remaining serotypes, although a considerable variation in agglutinability of human erythrocytes obtained from different donors was demonstrated. The hemagglutination of these red cells by serotype 9 was RDE sensitive, whereas the agglutination of human cells by the remaining serotypes was resistant to this treatment. The partial agglutination of both human O and rat red cells peculiar to unfractionated preparations of members of subgroup III was suggested to be caused by the presence of a relative excess of incomplete HA's (i.e., fibers and pentons), in unfractionated preparations of these types, which competitively interfered with the complete hemagglutinin. The following observations supported this explanation (a) isolated complete HA's, such as virions, displayed complete agglutination with both kinds of red cells; (b) adsorption experiments demonstrated a larger amount of virus specific receptors on rat red cells reacting with members of subgroup II than with members of subgroup III; and (c) in a model system the presence of fibers belonging to both subgroup II and III competitively inhibited the virion-mediated agglutination of both rat and human cells.

The author would like to express his gratitude to Professor Sven Gard and Dr. Erling Norrby for valuable discussions and helpful criticism. The excellent performance of biological tests by Miss Marianne Peterson and Miss Ragnvi Svensson is also gratefully acknowledged.