The detection of tissue antigens

Summary

Sensitivity of the general methods was compared. For that purpose the following determinations were carried out: 1) the minimal dose of the antigen, to which guinea pigs, passively sensitized by various doses of the corresponding immune serum, reacted and 2) the quantity of the antigen which could be determined by the same immune serum in experiments in vitro. Anaphylactic reaction was found to be more advantageous in experiments with low doses of Immune serum. Sensitivity of the serological method could be increased in conducting experiments by the so called. “rectangular” scheme, which takes the law of optimal ratios into consideration, as well as by using the method of large volume of antibodies. In order to reveal the components of the complex antigen one should study the method of passive anaphylaxis by sensitization of animals by immune sera, in which the antigens of the normal tissues were previously exhausted in vitro.

The problems which are next to be investigated are, the methods of differentiation of antigenic components which possess common antigenic groups, the characteristics of the new serological methods, the problem of tumor antigens with consideration of conceptions on autoantigens.