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The Dissimilarity of the Results of Precipitin Titrations Performed with a Constant Amount of Antiserum and with a Constant Amount of Antigen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

G. L. Taylor
G. L. Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge.
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1. Antisera, made against crystalline egg-albumin, have been examined by titrating a constant amount of antiserum against falling amounts of the antigen (the usual Dean and Webb method), and also by the reverse procedure in which the amount of antigen was constant and that of antiserum varied. The ratios by the two methods were never found to agree; nevertheless, in the majority of cases the relationship which the ratio by one method bore to the ratio by the other method was of the same order, and it is possible that this relationship is constant for crystalline egg-albumin and its antisera.

2. The conclusions reached in my previous work (1931) require modification, because in those experiments insufficiently extensive ranges were used and as a result it was found that when varying amounts of anti-horse serum were titrated against a fixed amount of antigen, particulation was quickest in the tube containing most antiserum.

3. Titrations by the reverse method over a fairly considerable range have provided evidence that the proportions of crystalline egg-albumin and a given homologous antiserum favourable for the most rapid particulation are constant despite absolute quantitative changes. The proportions in which these reagents particulate most rapidly are similarly constant in titrations by the usual Dean and Webb method.

4. Why the two methods of titration give different results I am unable to explain, but the point of optimal particulation found by the Dean and Webb method probably coincides with the point of neutrality of antigen and antibody. Since in the Ramon (1923) method of titrating diphtheria toxin and antitoxin the reverse method, with constant antigen and varying antiserum, is used, the work reported here suggests that the determination of the relationship to each other and to animal values of the results of titrations of toxin and antitoxin by both methods might yield helpful information.

5. Some points of practical importance in the performance of optimal proportions titrations are appended.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 1933 , pp. 12 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1933

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