Abstract
Australia antigen is a human serum antigen which is closely associated with the infectious agent of hepatitis (1-3). The antigen develops in the blood of patients during the incubation period and illness of acute viral hepatitis (4). Blood containing Australia antigen is capable of transmitting the disease (5).
In the course of studies on the effect of collagenase on Australia antigen, a serum was observed to lose its Australia antigen reactivity when incubated at 37°. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from this serum and it was found that incubation with this isolate reproducibly destroyed Australia antigen reactivity in the immunodiffusion test.
Materials and Methods. Australia antigen was detected using the immunodiffusion method employing a 7 hole pattern cut in 1.1% agarose in pH 8.2 Veronal buffer (6, 7). The sera which contained Australia antigen used in these studies were from patients with acute viral hepatitis and Down's syndrome. Tryp-ticase soy broth and trypticase soy agar (Dif-co) were used for cultivating the bacteria at 37°. Bacteria were identified at the Jeanes Hospital Laboratory using the four part differential system (Kliglers iron agar, Simmons citrate agar, SIM medium and urea agar). Sterile filtrates were produced by passing cultures through a 1.2 μm Millipore filter and then a 0.45 μm filter.
Experiments and Results. A. The effect of temperature on the action of P. aeruginosa. The following experiment demonstrates the inactivating capacity of the cultures and shows that the loss of Australia antigen reactivity upon incubation with P. aeruginosa is temperature dependent. Three replicate vials containing 0.2 ml of 10 different sera which contained Australia antigen were incubated at 37°, 25° and in the refrigerator at 3-4° with 1 drop of a 1 day broth culture of P. aeruginosa. As a control, an additional set of the same 10 sera was incubated with 1 drop of sterile trypticase soy broth at each temperature.
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