Immunologic Disparities of Spore and Vegetative Stages of B. Subtilis

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Résumé: A rabbit immunized by a culture of killed B. subtilis spores develops almost an equal amount of agglutinins for both spores and bacilli, unless the disorganized remnants of the latter are removed from the antigen. A rabbit immunized with a culture of spore free killed bacilli will produce a potent homologous serum which shows little or no tendency to cross agglutinate in the dilutions employed; the spores do not remove the bacillary agglutinins to any extent after being treated with antiformin, but when untreated they remove them almost in toto. Conversely, an antispore serum contains no agglutinins for the bacillary stage of the organism, and the latter does not absorb homologous antibodies from the serum. Inasmuch as the bacillary agglutinins do not attack the non-acid-fast spores, their resistance to the immunological forces of the body may have an additional explanation to the one usually advanced, viz., the impenetrability of the spore wall. It would seem that the agglutinin reaction is not always applicable as a means of identification of various phases of bacterial life when such exist. For, in this instance, their differences are too great to be measured by it, and it would not be surprising to find the same thing to be true of the more delicate complement fixation reaction.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: