Abstract
Quantitative studies of antifibrinolytic immunity are made difficult by the multiplicity of reacting (or conditioning) factors in sterile† streptococcus filtrates and by the non-applicability of simple physicochemical laws to the neutralization of such filtrates with streptococcus antiserum.
A 200% increase in effective fibrinolytic titer often takes place in control mixtures of streptococcus filtrate and normal horse serum. A typical example of this serological exaltation of fibrinolytic titer is recorded in Fig. 1.
Similar activations, depolymerizations, maturizations or apparent proliferations of the fibrinolysin take place during the process of neutralization with specific immune serum.‡ With border-line serum doses the resulting diphasic or triphasic neutralization curves give data, from which the titer of the antiserum is difficult to calculate. Typical curves of this type are recorded in Fig. 2.
The fibrinolytic titer of a streptococcus filtrate is often inadvertently increased under routine experimental conditions, even in the absence of normal or specific immune serum. Such quasi-proliferation of the fibrinolysin is quite constant, for example, in dilute filtrates stored at refrigerator temperatures. Typical data are recorded in Fig. 3.
No theory is as yet suggested as to the probable mechanism of these unprecedented increases in lytic titer.
Whether or not similar augmentations of lytic activity take place in the animal body (e. g., as a result of the administration of subtherapeutic doses of antistreptococcus serum), is a problem of practical clinical interest.
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