| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
From the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
Abstract
On the basis of tests for specific inhibition of saline agglutination, absorption of specific antiserum, and limited, but critical experiments with complement fixation, the conclusion seems warranted that lipid extracts prepared from whole erythrocytes (Rh0D) using the method outlined by Carter, though possibly of immunologic interest, bear no specific relationship in vitro to the Rh0 (D) antigen. Evidence is presented which indicates that the Rh0 (D) antigen present in whole erythrocytes is inactivated by the first step in the procedure employed to obtain these lipids. Whole lyophilized erythrocyte stroma, from which cholesterol has been removed by dry ether extraction, when redissolved retains its potency as a specific inhibitor of Rh saline (D) agglutination. The lipids obtained in ether solution by this method are inert with respect to the Rh0 (D) antigen.
Because of the absence of any demonstrable in vitro Rh specificity in the lipid extracts prepared by Carter's method, it seems necessary to conclude also that the administration of such material to Rh-sensitized pregnant women has no clear therapeutic rationale.
Footnotes
1 The blood used for extraction was kindly supplied by the Division of Biologic Laboratories, Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Blood grouping sera were furnished by the Blood Grouping Laboratory, Inc., Children's Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.
2 Senior Fellow in Virus Diseases of the National Research Council.
3 Assistant Professor of Bacteriology, University of Chicago.
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
