THE COMBINATION BETWEEN HEMOLYSINS AND RED CELLS OR GHOSTS, AS STUDIED WITH A RADIOACTIVE LYSIN AND WITH NEW COLOR REACTIONS

Abstract

The quantity of a radioactive hemolysin, Na dodecyl sulfonate-S35, taken up by red cells from concns. too small to produce hemolysis varies with the lysin concn. and does so in a way which can be descr. by an adsorption isotherm. Color reactions with the anthrone reagent show that digitonin and saponin are both taken up by, or fixed to, red cell ghosts; the extent of the uptake, however, is uncertain again because of the liberation of chromogenic substances. Comparison of the results of the various methods which measure the apparent amt. of lysin fixed, or utilized in reactions between lysins and red cells or ghosts, show discrepancies between results given by direct methods (measurement of radioactivity or by color) and indirect methods (addition of a 2d population after lysis of a 1st, and dependence of the position of the asymptote of the time-dilution curve on the no. of red cells). The discrepancies are traceable to the inhibitory effects of substances liberated from the red cells or ghosts. There is now ample evidence that lysis in systems containing simple hemolysins is a process involving 2 stages in time and 2 phases, and that it is usually complicated by reactions between the hemolysin and liberated inhibitory material,.