Erythrocyte-Sensitizing Substances from Rickettsiae of the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Group

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Abstract
Summary: Erythrocyte sensitizing substances, ESS, have been derived from ether extracted suspensions of yolk sac membranes infected with various members of the Rocky Mountain spotted fever group of rickettsiae. Tests on normal and immune sera indicate that the ESS from different strains are common to the entire RMSF group. A slight antigenic overlap between RMSF and typhus was ocassionally encountered in the ESS tests, but otherwise the typhus-ESS were clearly different from the RMSF-ESS. Antibodies to ESS of the RMSF group occurred regularly in human and rabbit convalescent sera, but not in guinea pig sera. The ESS test has certain advantages over the complement fixation and the Weil-Felix tests.