Abstract
Summary
Complement mediated bactericidal activity of sera produces cellular death and disruption of Neisseria meningitidis organisms. This has permitted development of a test measuring release of radioactivity from 14C-labeled organisms exposed to the bactericidal effects of immune rabbit serum and complement. The percentage of radioactivity released from 14C-labeled meningococci by the action of specific bactericidal rabbit antibody and complement was 45%, while normal rabbit sera control released only 8% of the radioactivity.
The overall correlation between this new test and the standard meningococcal bactericidal test is excellent.
Results are obtainable with excellent reproducibility within 1 hr. The need for plating and colony counting is eliminated and the sources of error are small.
We gratefully acknowledge the help of Malcolm S. Arnstein, M.D., Jeffrey L. Winkelhake, M.S., and Wendell D. Zollinger, Ph.D. in the preparation of this manuscript. Able technical assistance was provided by Carrie L. Calhoun, SP5.
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