The effect of nasal secretions upon human serum.

Abstract

The discovery of the resistance-lowering properties of hog gastric mucin (Nungester et al, 1932) has been followed by a number of studies on the properties of mucins lowering host resistance. Although the great majority of these studies have dealt with the production of infection in experimental animals, a number of workers have reported the alteration of the antibacterial properties of the blood following treatment with hog gastric mucin (Nungester et al, 1936; Keefer and Spink, 1938; Oerskov, 1940; Fothergill et al, 1937; Engley, 1954a and b). Although the mechanisms of the antibacterial effects of blood have not been fully described, the importance of serum complement has repeatedly been emphasized particularly as affecting the gram-negative organisms. An important antibacterial phenomenon which involves complement has recently been described by Pillemer (1954), who has reported the isolation of an antibacterial serum protein, properdin, which acts upon susceptible organisms in a complement-dependent reaction. The anticomplementary activity of hog gastric mucin has been reported by Lambert and Richley (1952). Also, the characterization of one of the active