ON IMMUNOLOGICALLY-ACTIVE SUBSTANCES OF DERMATOPHYTES .2.

[摘要] Twenty-two purified fractions having trichophytin activity, isolated from the mycelium and also from the culture filtrate of Trichophyton mentagrophytes var. asteroides. by means of elution column chromatography usine DEAE-Sephadex A-50 as reported previously, were analyzed by paper chromatography after hydrolysis. The majority of these fractions was found to consist of peptide-containing polysaccharides or sugar-containing peptides, except for 2 ribonucleic acid fractions from the mycelium, and 5 simple peptide fractions and a simple polysaccharide fractions from the culture medium,, Among the constituent sugars of these fractions glucose was followed by mannose, glucosamine and ribose. As the amino acids from peptides, serine and glutamic acid were detected in all the fractions and glycine, alanine, leucine and valine were also commonly present. The intensity of the antigenic activity of these fractions, as determined by the intracutaneous reactions of rabbits with experimental trichophytosis, were of the following order; peptide-containing polysaccharide > sugar-containingpeptide > simple peptide [image] ribonucleic acid (or oligori-bonucleotide) simple polysaccharide. These findings demonstrate that the main active prinicpals of trichophytins are peptidepolysaccharide complexes, and confirm the opinions of previous authors that the active principle is nitrogen-containing polysaccharide. However, the complexity of trichohytins, as stated by Kull, Brun and Jadassohn was also confirmed by the demonstration of a more or less appreciable activity of all the 22 fractions tested. The results of the precipitin reaction performed on 10 of these fractions did not necessarily parallel the results obtained from the intracutaneous reaction. Many of the trichophytins from the culture filtrate were found to resemble those isolated from the mycelium in their chemical nature. The chmeical nature of trichophytin is that of a polysaccharide-protein or polysaccharide -nuc-leoprotein complex which may give rise to several fragments upon partial degradation, yet preserving more or less significant trichophytin activity.