Group-Specific Agglutinins in Rabbit Serums for Human Cells

[摘要] The inhibition-test for the presence of A antigen and the agglutination-test for specific α agglutinin in rabbit serums has shown in most cases a mutually exclusive relationship between presence of antigen and agglutinin. Some serums were detected, however, that had specific α agglutinin in addition to the A antigen. These “irregular” α agglutinins are usually present for only a short period of time, are qualitatively different from the normal α agglutinin and may possibly be cold agglutinins with an (exceptionally) high thermal amplitude. When immunized with human A cells, rabbits having A antigen failed to produce potent specific immune serums even though some of these possessed natural α agglutinin.Whereas the study of the inheritance of α agglutinin is complicated by the presence of the irregular α, the inheritance of the A antigen appears to be quite regular and simple when determined by the inhibition-test. The presence or absence of the A antigen segregates as a single mendelian pair of contrasting characters, presence being dominant to absence. The possibility that irregular agglutinins may be the result of hybridization is discussed.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）