Abstract
Summary
The toxoplasma neutralizing antibody was found to be so labile even at temperatures of about 5°C, that it could disappear after one to 2 weeks of storage in an ordinary refrigerator. The antibody effect was destroyed by heating at 56 °C for 30 minutes and could not be restored by the addition of fresh complement. The antibody could be preserved for months at the low temperature provided by solid CO2 in an insulated box. Antibody was absent in the fresh sera of rhesus monkeys before infection with toxoplasma but appeared within one to 2 weeks after infection and persisted for at least 14 months which is the limit of observation thus far. This persistence of neutralizing antibody was not associated with persistence of toxoplasma in the monkeys, since none could be found in tests on a large number of tissues from 3 monkeys, 14, 17, and 26 weeks after infection. No neutralizing antibody was found in the fresh sera of normal rabbits, mice, cats, or dogs, nor did these animals develop any appreciable antibody after recovery from experimental infection with toxoplasma.
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