A Study of the Neutralizing Substance of the Pneumococcus

[摘要] In the foregoing paper different strains of highly virulent pneumococci were shown to vary in their ability to render inactive, or to neutralize, the protective power of antipneumococcus serum. In reality, this neutralizing characteristic becomes the significant variable in the pneumococcus culture used in any form of protection test. Although the control of this variable is possible, it is difficult. Consequently this study was made to determine some of the conditions which influence the actual neutralization of protective antibody by pneumococcus antigen, as well as conditions which have to do with the production of neutralizing substance by living pneumococci.The general procedure in estimating the neutralizing substance (1) in any pneumococcus culture consists in bringing a constant amount of antigen into contact with varying dilutions of serum for a given length of time and then injecting a unit amount of this mixture into mice along with live virulent pneumococci.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）