Abstract
Summary
By means of serial passage in 10% rabbit serum broth it has been possible to secure sufficient growth in fluid media of a strain of pleuropneumonia-like microorganism derived from the human cervix uteri to permit sérologie and pathogenic studies.
This strain was found not to be pathogenic for mice when cultures were injected intravenously, and no evidence of a toxin was observed.
Immune serum was prepared by the repeated inoculation of rabbits with saline-resuspended sediments of rabbit serum broth cultures. A satisfactory agglutinating antigen was prepared in the same manner. This serum agglutinated the homologous human antigen to a dilution of 1:1000, but failed to agglutinate antigens prepared similarly from Types A, B, and C of the mouse pleuropneu-monia group.
Antisera to Types A, B, C, D, E from mice and L3 and L4 from rats, even when used undiluted, failed to agglutinate the human strain. From what is known of the pleuro-pneumonia group, microorganisms native to one host are rarely pathogenic for another and usually are serologically distinct. With a strain that is native to man one would expect neither significant serological cross-reactions with rodent strains nor would one expect path-ogenicity in rodents. As a matter of fact it may not be possible to establish whether or not the human strains are pathogens or saprophytes by animal inoculation. The development of antibodies in human beings carrying such strains and tests in man may be necessary to elucidate this question.
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