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The Activating Effect of Fresh Normal Serum on the Pneumococcidal-Promoting Action of Antipneumococcus Serum, Type I

From the Departments of Medicine of the University of Chicago and the Peiping Union Medical College, Peiping, China

Abstract

With a view to obtaining a clearer understanding of the environmental conditions under which pneumococcus immune serum exerts its optimum anti-bacterial action, a study was made of the influence of fresh normal serum on the pneumococcidal-promoting action of antipneumococcus serum type I in normal rabbit serum-leucocyte mixtures. It was found that the substitution of inactivated normal adult rabbit serum for fresh serum, largely deprived the immune serum of its power to confer pneumococcus-destroying properties on the serum-leucocyte mixtures. In the absence of fresh serum relatively high concentrations of immune serum had to be employed to produce a demonstrable killing effect. However, if instead of adult rabbit serum, inactivated serum of young rabbits was used, the pneumococcidal-promoting action of the immune serum was completely abolished. This could be restored by the addition of relatively small quantities of fresh serum to the inactivated serum-leucocyte mixture. Furthermore there was found to be a constant quantitative relationship between the effective dilution of immune serum and the amount of fresh serum necessary; the higher the dilution of immune serum the greater the quantity of fresh serum required to make it effective. It was shown that the interaction of pneumococcus antigen and antibody in the normal serum deprived it of activating properties. Observations were then made to determine whether or not a similar diminution occurs in the body during the course of pneumococcus infection. Tests on the serum of experimentally infected animals and human cases of lobar pneumonia showed no notable impairment of its activating function.