Production of Specific Antisera Against Sickle Cell Anemia Erythrocytes; Antibody in Sicklemia Sera.

Abstract

Erythrocytes from 2 patients with sickle cell anemia, when injected into rabbits, produced anti-sera that agglutinated erythrocytes from 19 patients with sickle cell anemia, but not from 21 individuals with sickle cell trait, nor 124 normal subjects. These agglutinins were easily absorbed by erythrocytes from sickle cell anemia patients, but showed little or no absorption with erythrocytes from sickle cell trait individuals. These results suggest that there may be a qualitative antigenic difference between trait and sickle cell anemia erythrocytes. They also suggest the possibility that anti-sickle cell anemia anti-sera may offer a laboratory aid in differentiating between cases of sickle cell anemia and sickle cell trait, where the latter is complicated by some other form of anemia. Also a hemagglutinin was found in the serum of 13 cases of sickle cell anemia. This was found either in saline or in albumin or both in all but 1 of these 13 cases, and the anti-globulin (Coombs) test was positive in all 13. Of 11 cases of sickle cell trait studied for presence of hemagglutinin, anti-body was demonstrated in 4 while 2 gave doubtful evidence of it. The possibility that the hemolysis in sickle cell anemia might be related to the presence of antibody is suggested.