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Experimental Studies of Puerperal Infection

IV. The Effect of Pregnancy on the Hemolytic and Agglutinative Activity of the Blood Serum

From the Division of Laboratories and Research, New York State Department of Health, Albany

Abstract

The Variation in Hemolytic Complement in Pregnant Rabbits From the results of an earlier study (1) we concluded that pregnancy in mice increases their susceptibility to streptococcus infection. Further experimental work (2, 3) has been undertaken for the purpose of investigating differences in certain of the factors involved in the immune reaction which might be responsible for this increase.

Griffith and Scott (4) have reported that the hemolytic activity of the sera of pregnant or postparturient guinea pigs is often only one-fifth as great as that of the sera of normal animals. This fact provided a logical starting point for the investigation of alterations in the humoral defense reactions during pregnancy. Rabbits were selected as the experimental animals because, while less suitable than guinea pigs for the study of complement, they have a gestation period of only thirty-one days and are much better adapted to the investigation of the other factors which were subsequently to be correlated with the findings in this experiment.