Detecting Treponema pallidum in primary lesions by the fluorescent antibody technique.

Abstract

A FLUORESCENT TECHNIQUE (1) using intact Treponema palliduim (Nichols strain) as known antigen and fluorescein-labeled antiglobulin as an indicator of a treponemal antibody complex has been widely tested as a serologic test for syphilis and may some day replace the T. palliduim immobilization (TPI) test. The fluorescent technique has also been employed in the identification of unknown antigens; for example, recent reports (2,3) have shown the feasibility of rapid and specific identification of micro-organisms in smears stained with specific labeled fluorescent antibody. Until recently these techniques had not been applied to the field of venereal disease (4). This paper reports experimental studies and a field trial study in which the same principles have been applied to the identification of T. pallidum from primary lesions.