TOTAL NONDIALYZABLE SOLIDS (TNDS) IN HUMAN URINE. XIII. IMMUNOLOGICAL DETECTION OF A COMPONENT PECULIAR TO RENAL CALCULOUS MATRIX AND TO URINE OF CALCULOUS PATIENTS*

Abstract

Calcigerous stone matrix contains at least two and commonly three or more immunologically discrete components. Some of these components have immunological counterparts in normal human blood serum and in the total nondialyzable solids of normal urine. One component of stone matrix is immunologically more prominent than any of the others. It gives a "reaction of identity" with matrix from all calcigerous calculi. It has been identified only in the matrix of urinary calculi and in the relatively soluble nonultrafiltrable (RS-1) solids of urine from patients with renal calculi. This component of stone matrix is designated "matrix substance A" pending its isolation and further characterization. Matrix substance A has not been immunologically identifiable in normal or pyelonephritic urine, in serum or erythrocytes of normal subjects or patients with stones, in blood or matrix from human bone, or in human saliva. Bacteria recovered from patients with calculi have not produced a substance immunologically reactive to matrix immune sera either in pure culture or in cultures containing total nondialyzable solids of normal urine.