Experiments with trypanosomes in relation to the Wassermann reaction.

Abstract

The results of recent work 1 on the possibility of producing anti-bodies by means of substances apparently belonging to the class of lipoids have stimulated renewed investigation on the cause of the production of the Wassermann reagins.

Several main hypotheses relative to this subject have been considered. One of these implies that the reagins are no antibodies at all; others suppose that they are antibodies for spirochetes with an affinity also to lipoids of common origin; still another assumes that antibody formation is brought about by lipoids of the infected organism.

In analogy to the experiments on the production of hetero-genetic antibodies by mixtures of proteins and alcoholic extract of organs, 1 Sachs and his coworkers 2 thought of the possibility that the production of antibodies is due to a combined action of components of the spirochetes with lipoids derived from the infected animals. As a support of this hypothesis they report experiments in which it is shown that Wassermann positive sera can be produced in rabbits by the injection of alcoholic extracts of rabbit organs along with diluted pig serum.

Among our own experiments dealing with the question were such concerning the possibility of obtaining Wassermann positive sera by injections of dead trypanosomes (T. equiperdum). It had been shown previously that infection of rabbits with trypanosomes (T. equiperduwz) often results in the development of a positive Wassermann reaction. 3 Experiments by Klopstock in which he succeeded in eliciting Wassermann reactions by injecting dead Spirocheta pallida have been published very recently. 4

For the selection of rabbits the Sachs Georgi flocculation test was employed and only such whose sera gave completely negative reactions were taken for the experiments. One set of animals was treated with dead trypanosomes which had been kept over night in the icebox in a saline soluti'on containing 0.25 per cent phenol.