Some Properties of the Complement-fixing Antigens of the Agents of Trachoma and Inclusion Blennorrhoea and the Relationship of the Antigens to the Developmental Cycle

Abstract

The viruses of trachoma and inclusion blennorrhoea, like other members of the psittacosis-lymphogranuloma group, contain heat-stable and heat-labile complement-fixing antigens. The heat-stable antigen, which is soluble in ether and partly destroyed by periodate, appears to be chemically similar, as well as serologically related to, the lipopoly-saccharide-protein complex shared by other viruses of the group. Complement-fixing group antigen was detected at all times during one cycle of multiplication of a strain of inclusion blennorrohea virus in HeLa cells. The amount of cell-associated antigen, about half of which sedimented under the same conditions as mature elementary bodies, remained constant for the first 16 hr. after adsorption; after 16 hr. it increased linearly, reaching a maximum 28 hr. after adsorption. The group antigen probably forms at a stage in the developmental cycle when large forms predominate and is later distributed among the smaller infectious elementary bodies.