The Antigenic Substances of the Tubercle Bacillus

[摘要] Guinea pigs sensitized with killed bacteria compared with infected guinea pigs give relatively stronger reactions with the protein substances extracted with weak NaOH from the bacillary bodies than with the filtrate of broth culture.When groups of tuberculous guinea pigs are treated with different tuberculin preparations with different antigen specificity the skin reactions in each group (compared to the reaction of the other groups) are relatively slighter with the preparations used for the treatment than with the other preparations. These observations show that between different tuberculin preparations not only quantitative, but also qualitative differences are present with respect to the tuberculin effect.Of our purified preparations only the protein substances have had tuberculin effect, and these preparations with few exceptions have also had antigenic properties in vitro . Two of the important tuberculin preparations, the protein substances precipitable at low pH, and the tuberculin-active substances of the broth, nonprecipitable with acids, gave reaction only with a few of our sera.The tuberculin effect probably is one of the several manifestations of the specific properties of the antigens.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）