Complement-Fixation in Gonococcus Infections

Abstract

Following the application of the principles of complement-fixation in the serum diagnosis of syphilis, the possibilities of this method as a means of diagnosis were soon realized and in a short space of time many infections were studied. In no instance, however, have results been secured comparable to the diagnostic value of the syphilis reaction. This is probably due to two main factors: (1) syphilis quickly becomes a general infection with a resulting extensive antibody formation, and (2) the antibody of the treponema pallidum or at least the more prominent of two possible antibodies, is characterized by its great affinity for lipoids in tissue extracts (antigens). This peculiar lipodophilic antibody or reagin is found with any degree of constancy in only two other infections, frambesia and leprosy. Pure culture antigens of the treponema pallidum have not the same value in the syphilis reaction as the ordinary lipoidal extracts, and results in the serum diagnosis of syphilis with these culture antigens are comparable in their inconstancy and weakness to reactions in other infectious diseases with their specific culture antigens, including the gonococcus complement-fixation test. If Wassermann and his co-workers had had a pure culture antigen of the treponema pallidum instead of fortunately but unwittingly selecting a tissue the great value of the syphilis reaction would not have been so quickly realized.