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On the Deviation of Complement by a Serum and its Anti-serum and its Relations to the Precipitin Test

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

Robert Muir  and
W. B. M. Martin
Robert Muir
Affiliation:
Professor of Pathology, University of Glasgow
W. B. M. Martin
Affiliation:
Coats Scholar in Pathology
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1. A mixture of serum and its anti-serum has the property of fixing or deviating complement and thus interfering with haemolysis. In this there is a close analogy to the fixation of complements by cellreceptors in association with immune-bodies.

2. A large number of different complements may be fixed by the same combination of serum and anti-serum: some complements however may not be fixed.

3. The amount of homologous serum necessary to produce a distinct deviation of complement is extremely small—·000,01 c.c. and even less: as a rule it is many times less than the amount necessary to give a visible precipitate with the anti-serum.

4. When a precipitate forms, the deviating substance is present in the precipitate and may be so exclusively: precipitation is however not essential, as the deviation phenomenon may be given by an anti-serum without the formation of a precipitate.

5. The precipitin and deviation tests give results which are in great part in accord as regards specificity.

6. For any given amount of anti-serum there is an optimum amount of homologous serum which gives maximum deviation of complement: above as well as below the optimum the deviation diminishes.

7. The deviation phenomenon produces an effect similar to an “anti-complement” action and the views generally held with regard to anti-complements require revision. It is however still left an open question whether true anti-complements exist.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , July 1906 , pp. 265 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1906

References

page 265 note 1 Muir, and Browning, , Journal of Hygiene, 1906, p. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 266 note 1 Gengou, , Annales de l'inst. Pasteur, 1902, p. 734.Google Scholar

page 266 note 2 Moreschi, , Berlin. klin. Wochenschr. 1905, p. 1181.Google Scholar

page 266 note 3 Neisser, and Sachs, , Berlin. klin. Wochenschr. 1905, No. 44, and 1906, No. 3.Google Scholar

page 267 note 1 Gay, , Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. 1905, XXXIX. Abtheil I. Originale, p. 603Google Scholar; Annales de l'inst. Pasteur, 1905, p. 593.Google Scholar

page 267 note 2 Pfeiffer, and Moreschi, , Berlin. klin. Wochenschr. 1906, p. 33.Google Scholar

page 267 note 3 Moreschi, , Berlin. klin. Wochenschr. 1906, p. 76.Google Scholar

page 267 note 4 Friedberger, , Deutsche med. Wochenschr. 1906, p. 578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 267 note 5 Liefmann, , Berlin. klin. Wochenschr. 1906, p. 448.Google Scholar

page 267 note 1 In each case the serum used is heated to 55°C. for an hour at least, to destroy the complement naturally present.

page 269 note 1 In each case the serum used is heated to 55°C. for an hour at least, to destroy the complement naturally present.

page 272 note 1 In this case there is a striking analogy to what Muir and Browning (Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. 1904, vol. LXXIV. p. 298) found in the case of haemolytic immune-bodies, viz.: that increased amounts of immune-body for guinea-pig's corpuscles did not take up (or deviate) increased amounts of rabbit's complement when guinea-pig's corpuscles+immune-body were used as the test, whereas they did so when ox's corpuscles+immune-body were used. In fact if we substitute anti-serum to guinea-pig's serum for immune-body to guinea-pig's corpuscles the results coincide in the two cases.

page 273 note 1 Morgenroth, , München. med. Wochenschr. No. 25, 1902.Google Scholar

page 274 note 1 Note. Gay has suggested that probably many errors have arisen in haemolytic experiments through non-recognition of the deviation of complement by a serum+its anti-serum, and has pointed out the difficulty in freeing red corpuseles completely from the serum by washing. Even however if a small quantity of serum be left the amount of anti-serum necessary to produce deviation is relatively great, and as all the haemolytic sera which I have used have been powerful (·003 c.c. being generally the haemolytic dose) I am certain that no error of importance can have arisen from this cause in the work which I have published. Our views regarding anti-complements however require revision in view of the results established with regard to deviation of complements. R. M.

page 279 note 1 Nuttall, , Blood Immunity and Relationship, Cambridge, 1904, p. 165.Google Scholar