The Relative Heat Stability of Antibodies in Chromatographic Fractions of Rabbit Antisera to Various Antigens

[摘要] Chromatographic fractions containing, on the one hand, predominantly 7 S, mercaptoethanolresistant antibody and on the other, 19 S, mercaptoethanol-sensitive antibody were prepared from rabbit antisera to the H and O antigens of Salmonella typhosa, Leptospira grippotyphosa , bovine serum albumin, and sheep erythrocytes. Agglutinins in the 7 S fractions were found to be more resistant to inactivation by heat than the agglutinins in the 19 S fractions. A similar difference in resistance to heat was demonstrated for the hemolytic activity of 7 S and 19 S antibodies to sheep erythrocytes and to the somatic antigens of S. typhosa . The observed differences in heat inactivation could not be accounted for by the formation of complexes between antibody and other serum proteins as a result of heating. The relative heat resistance of 7 S antibody as compared to 19 S appears to explain the well known difference in the susceptibility of somatic and flagellar agglutinins to inactivation by heat.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）