Immunogenic properties of the protein component of Treponema pallidum.

Abstract

In a previous paper (Metzger and Podwiinska, 1967) evidence was presented that the development of agglutinability which occurs in ageing suspen- sions of T. pallidum (Hardy and Nell, 1955, 1957; Metzger and Podwinska, 1965) proceeds at different rates to different agglutinating antibodies present in syphilitic or immune sera. Most remarkable was the behaviour of the treponemes in a serum that contained antibody to the heat-labile treponeme component only; the agglutinability of the tre- ponemes, suspended in phosphate buffered saline of pH 7-4 and maintained at 4C., increased sharply in the first days after their extraction from syphilitic testes, reached maximal values between the sixth and the tenth day of storage, and thereafter decreased rapidly so that, as a rule, 14-day-old organisms were practically not agglutinated by this antibody. Moreover, it was found (Metzger and Podwiniska, 1968) that treponemes stored longer than 14 days were also incapable of stimulating the production of antibody to the heat-labile antigen in rabbits.