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. 1955 Mar 31;101(4):367–382. doi: 10.1084/jem.101.4.367

SPECIFIC AGGLUTINATION OF TREPONEMA PALLIDUM BY SERA FROM RABBITS AND HUMAN BEINGS WITH TREPONEMAL INFECTIONS

Paul H Hardy Jr 1, E Ellen Nell 1
PMCID: PMC2136476  PMID: 14354107

Abstract

A method has been described for the preparation of Treponema pallidum suspensions that are suitable for specific agglutination studies and can be stored at 4°C. for months without loss of agglutinability. Such suspensions have been shown to react with two distinct antibodies in the serum of syphilitic animals and man: Wassermann antibody and a specific treponeme agglutinin. It has been demonstrated that the agglutination of treponemes by specific treponeme agglutinin is enhanced by heat treatment or aging of the suspension, and inhibited by a divalent cation, probably Ca++, normally present in serum. This inhibition has been overcome by the use of a chelating agent, ethylene-diamine tetracetate. These findings have been utilized to devise a simple agglutination test for the diagnosis of treponeme infections that is very sensitive and highly specific. This test has been carried out with 430 human sera, and a comparison has been made of the results of the agglutination, treponemal immobilization, and standard serological tests on these sera. The agglutination test appears to have a specificity comparable to the treponemal immobilization test and considerably greater than the standard serological tests.

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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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