These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Immune immobilization of Treponema pallidum: antibody and complement interactions revisited.
    Author: Rice M, Fitzgerald TJ.
    Journal: Can J Microbiol; 1985 Dec; 31(12):1147-51. PubMed ID: 3913494.
    Abstract:
    The Treponema pallidum immobilization test was designed for serodiagnosis of syphilis and is dependent upon specific antibody and a heat labile component of normal serum. Investigators have shown the component to be dependent upon divalent cations and it is presumed to be complement. Experiments were performed to reevaluate the interactions of antibody and complement and the mechanism of immobilization. The loss of treponemal motility was correlated to the loss of complement activity in the reaction mixture. When motility of treponemes incubated with immune serum IgG and complement had dropped to 50% (3.4 h), 72% of the available complement had been consumed. At the same time, treponemes incubated with normal serum IgG and complement were 82% motile and only 51% of the complement had been consumed. C6 deficient rabbit serum and C4 deficient guinea pig serum were used in conjunction with immune serum IgG to determine which components of the complement cascade were necessary for immobilization. Treponemes were not immobilized by either sera. Results suggest that the heat labile factor in normal sera is complement, that both early and late components of the complement cascade are necessary, and that the reaction proceeds via the classical complement pathway. Although T. pallidum is susceptible to the actions of antibody and complement, the organisms must interact with these components for at least 2 h before immobilization will result.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]