Elution of Pollen Antigens from Tannic Acid Treated Erythrocytes.

Abstract

Using the tannic acid hemagglutination technique of Boyden it was observed that short ragweed antigens slowly eluted from the red cells and in so doing, caused a decrease in hemagglutination titer with time. Upon removal of the eluted antigen in the supernatant by washing, the cells again were capable of agglutinating to full titer for short periods. A crude fractionation of the antigen with trichloracetic acid precipitation and with dialysis yielded some antigenic fractions which gave very little elution while others were strongly elutable. The presence of antiserum was not required for this elution to occur.