Anticomplementary Reactions in Syphilis

Abstract

Rappaport and Stark confirmed Lighter''s 1953 observation that sera from patients suffering from congenital syphilis were responsible for anticomplementary reactions about 7 times more often than would be expected were anticomplementary reactions distributed among sera from patients with congenital syphilis and those with acquired syphilis. They inferred from their experimental study of this problem that the agent which removed the complement in the control tube was actually fixed by syphilitic antigen, or by a substance which behaved serologically like syphilitic antigen, the presence of this antigen in the serum causing it to be anticomplementary.