Abstract
In the conduct of complement fixation tests for poliomyelitis antibody 1 we have conducted Wassermann tests with the sera of 25 monkeys and found that all gave completely negative reactions.
It would appear, therefore, that monkey sera do not yield the nonspecific positive Wassermann and other complement fixation tests sometimes yielded by normal rabbit, dog and mule sera. 2
The tests were conducted according to the technic of the Kolmer modification of the Wassermann reaction 2 employing a cholesterolized and lecithinized alcoholic extract of beef heart as antigen in dose of 10 antigenic units.
Each serum was heated in a water bath at 55°C. for 30 minutes and used in amounts of 0.1, 0.05 and 0.025 cc. with 0.1 cc. in the serum controls. An antisheep hemolytic system was employed with a primary incubation of 15 hours at 4°C. followed by 10 minutes in a water bath at 37°C.
The 25 sera included 2 from normal monkeys, 5 from monkeys with the paralysis of acute anterior poliomyelitis, 7 from monkeys immunized about 14 months previously by 10 subcutaneous injections of the Kolmer vaccine of attenuated monkey spinal cord virus and 11 from monkeys inoculated intracerebrally with neutralized mixtures of serum and virus.
On the basis of the results it may be stated that the sera of normal and poliomyelitic immune monkeys as well as those with poliomyelitis do not give non-specific positive Kolmer-Wassermann reactions.
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