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. 1929 Oct 31;50(5):687–701. doi: 10.1084/jem.50.5.687

CUTANEOUS REACTIONS TO THE POLYSACCHARIDES AND PROTEINS OF PNEUMOCOCCUS IN LOBAR PNEUMONIA

William S Tillett 1, Thomas Francis Jr 1
PMCID: PMC2131649  PMID: 19869655

Abstract

I. a. Pneumococcus polysaccharides, when injected intradermally into patients convalescent from pneumonia, are capable of eliciting a response. The polysaccharide inducing a cutaneous reaction was found always to be homologous in type to that of the pneumococcus causing the infection. b. The character of the reaction incited by the protein-free bacterial sugars is of the immediate wheal and erythema type. c. A patient's capacity to react was found to be intimately associated both with recovery from infection and with the presence of type specific antibodies in the circulating blood. II. a. The so-called nucleo-protein of pneumococcus, when injected intradermally, also causes a local cutaneous reaction in patients during convalescence from lobar pneumonia. b. The local lesion resulting from the injection of protein is tuberculin-like in character, and differs from that evoked by the type-specific polysaccharides in gross appearance, time of development, and duration. c. Individuals, acutely ill with and convalescent from pneumococcus pneumonia, possess in their circulating blood, precipitins reactive with pneumococcus protein. In the observations recorded, the concentration of anti-protein antibodies in the blood serum did not seem to influence the patient's capacity to react to intradermal injection of the protein.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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