DETECTION OF APPARENTLY ABSENT CIRCULATING ANTIBODIES IN TUBERCULOUS SERA

Abstract

These workers have found that fractionation of serum proteins by the cold ethanol method unmasked antibody activity. Of 8 specimens of tuberculous serum which did not react in the Middlebrock-Dubos test, 4 could be demonstrated by fractionation to contain hemagglutinating antibodies. The serum of 7 patients which failed to react in the complement-fixation test yielded protein fractions manifesting antibody activity. Antituberculous antibodies were present in the "false negative" sera, but could react only after fractionation. The complement-fixing antibody was associated with the slow-moving globulins when studied electrophoretically; the hemaglutinating antibodies could not be precisely located. Fractionation of sera from 5 non-tuberculous patients, 2 of whom had positive tuberculin skin tests, did not yield fractions which reacted in the hemagglutination or complement-fixation test.