DIFFUSION-PRECIPITIN STUDIES OF THE COMPLEXITY OF ANTIGEN MIXTURES II

Abstract

Precipitate patterns in a modified Ouchterlony plate show that all the antibodies which react with antigens in a specimen of tetanus toxin also reacted with antigens in toxoid to form visible precipitate. If other antibodies were present, they did not form visible precipitates with antigens from either source. Yet, when toxin and toxoid was mixed, zones formed independently for antigens from the 2 components, showing that the zone nearest the antigen depot was not the limit beyond which antigen could not penetrate in a reactive form, as assumed in the dictum that the number of zones must not be greater than the number of antigens forming them.