Abstract
IN a previous communication the presence in streptococcal culture supernatants of four serologically distinct red-cell sensitizing antigens was described1. One of these antigens, Hickey, which was found to be of wide distribution among the Gram-positive cocci, is almost certainly identical with the non-species specific antigen described by Rantz, Randall and Zuckermann2. The distribution of this antigen has been observed to resemble closely that reported by McCarty3 for a glycerophosphate polymer isolated from various bacterial species, and it seemed possible that we were in fact dealing with the same compound. The polymer as isolated by McCarty had serologieal properties in that it was precipitated by certain streptococcal antisera—precipitation being inhibited markedly by synthetic polyglycero-phosphate prepared by Dr. A. M. Michelson4. Glycerophosphate polymers have also been isolated from bacteria by Mitchell and Moyle5 and by Baddiley et al. 6; but in neither of these cases were they investigated serologically.
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References
Stewart, F. S., Steele, T. W., and Martin, W. T., Immunol., 2, 285 (1959).
Rantz, L. A., Randall, E., and Zuckermann, A., J. Inf. Dis., 98, 211 (1956).
McCarty, M., J. Exp. Med., 109, 361 (1959).
Michelson, A. M., Chem. and Indust., 1147 (1958).
Mitchell, P., and Moyle, J., J. Gen. Microbiol., 5, 966 (1951).
Baddiley, J., Buchanan, J. G., and Greenberg, S. R., Biochem. J., 66, 51, P (1957). Armstrong, J. J., Baddiley, J., and Buchanan, J. G., Nature, 184, 247 (1959).
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STEWART, F. Bacterial Polyglycerophosphate. Nature 190, 464 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/190464a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/190464a0
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Streptococcal Red-cell-sensitizing Antigens
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