Increased Production of Colon Agglutinins in Blood Sera of Infantile Paralysis Patients

Abstract

The colon bacillus was not the prime factor causing the death of guinea pigs after subcutaneous injections of standardized emulsions of stools from infantile paralysis patients. Nevertheless, this organism might have some part in the disease picture since convalescent serum protected coli injected guinea pigs to a slight extent, prolonging the lives of the animals, though not ultimately saving them. This slight protection might be due to an antibody in the serum, perhaps, an agglutinin.

Twenty-three coli-paratyphoid organisms, obtained partly from the American Type Culture Collection and partly isolated by us were used to determine the relative agglutinating capacity of serum obtained at the height of the disease and convalescent serum obtained 21 days after the onset of the disease. Both specimens were taken from the same patient.

Of 88 cases whose sera were thus tested, 55 showed marked increases in the agglutination titer of the convalescent sera as compared to the sera obtained in the acute stages. Thirty-one cases had sera of equal agglutination titer, while 2 cases had higher titers with the acute serum than with the convalescent serum.