Abstract
The soluble antigens produced by twenty strains of Clostridium welchii Types B, C and D were investigated. The methods used were, in particular, the Ouchterlony double diffusion method in agar gels, besides the classical tests for lethal, haemolytic and enzymic factors, adapted where possible to give quantitative results.
Some concentration of the culture filtrates was found necessary to demonstrate the antigens by gel diffusion, and this was effected satisfactorily only by freeze-drying. Precipitin bands, due to α-, β- and ε-toxins and their corresponding antibodies, were identified using these concentrated filtrates. Additional precipitin bands were due to antigens that have not yet been identified.
All the toxins investigated appeared during the active growth phase; some, e.g. β- and δ-toxins, were found to decline rapidly with longer incubation. This decline, together with the conversion of the ε-precursor to active toxin, could be attributed to the action of the enzymes which were also present in the filtrates, and the same effect could be produced by treatment with trypsin.
The antigens of the Type D strains conformed to the expected pattern. Those of the Type B and C strains, however, exhibited wide variation in distribution and quantity, and were occasionally found in combinations that fitted neither of the accepted Types.
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