Studies on the Precipitin Reaction: Precipitating Haptens; Species Differences in Antibodies
- Contributor(s):
- Heidelberger, Michael Kendall, Forrest E. Journal of Experimental Medicine
- Publication:
- Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, March 1933
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Antibodies Antigen-Antibody Reactions Precipitins Haptens
- Genre(s):
- Archival Materials Articles
- Abstract:
- After moving to Columbia University, Heidelberger turned his focus to studying the chemical nature of antibodies, mainly attempting to prove that they were proteins. As such, Heidelberger surmised that using polysaccharide antigens of pneumococcus that he had identified with Oswald T. Avery would be perfect experimental agents, for any nitrogen present in the precipitate would be a chemical constituent of the antibody (proteins contain nitrogen, pneumococcal polysaccharides do not). Unfortunately, the low molecular weight of pneumococcal haptens (small molecules, not antigenic by themselves, that can react with antibodies of appropriate specificity and elicit the formation of such antibodies when attached to a larger antigenic molecule, such as a polysaccharide or protein) made it difficult to find a serum in which to conduct experiments, as the rabbit serum that immunologists universally used at the time did not properly react to such small quantities of hapten. In this article, Kendall and Heidelberger proposed that horse serum might be more suitable because horses appeared to form antibodies in reaction to type III pneumococcal haptens even when the haptens were present in minute quantities.
- Copyright:
- This item may be under copyright protection; contact the copyright owner for permission before re-use.
- Extent:
- 7 pages
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101584940X13 (See in Profiles in Science)
- Profiles in Science ID:
- DHBBBQ
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101584940X13
- Archival Collection:
- The Michael Heidelberger Papers (Profiles in Science)