Active Bacterial Anaphylaxis in Relation to Antibody Production

Abstract

The conception of anaphylaxis as an antibody-antigen reaction is generally admitted but the existence of a special anaphylactic antibody has never been conclusively demonstrated. The experiment of Doerr and Russ 1 indicated that a very definite quantitative relationship between precipitin content of the blood and its sensitizing power existed. The hypothesis of the essential identity of anaphylactic antibody and precipitin remained unchallenged until further light was thrown upon the subject by subsequent investigations. Manwaring and others 2 have shown that in dogs the sensitizing potency of the serum is probably different from its immune power. Spain and Grove 3 have also found that precipitin and anaphylactic reactions in rat might possibly represent 2 different immunological phenomena. Our previous experiment 4 on active sensitization of guinea pigs with certain strains of the yeast-like fungi has also resulted in a finding indicating that the sensitizing power of closely related species of these organisms is distinctly different.

It seems of interest to determine whether a correlation between sensitizing and antigenic properties of different moniliae could be found. For the present experiment, Monilia pinoyi and Monilia psilosis have been selected. The biological difference between these 2 species consists mainly in the fact that the former fungus exhibits a considerably higher sensitizing power than the latter. Specific polysaccharids were prepared from each monilia strain, using a similar method. The serological tests performed with each polysaccharid showed that their specific activities in precipitin and complement fixation reactions when set up against homologous rabbit antiserum gave similar readings. In cross precipitin reactions both polysaccharids also showed identical titres.

Active sensitization of guinea pigs was performed through the use of 48 hour Sabouraud agar cultures suspended in normal saline to an equal density and killed by exposure to 75°C. for 45 minutes.