Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the measurement of complement fixation by viruses. The complement fixation test is an indirect way of detecting and measuring an antigen–antibody reaction that is not easily observed directly as an agglutination or as a precipitation; it is, therefore, particularly useful for the study of viruses that can rarely be obtained in the high concentrations and purity that will permit the application of direct methods. Complement fixation tests are usually employed for the study of virus-soluble antigens, as there are few other ways to detect these substances associated with the virus elementary body. Direct and indirect complement fixation tests certainly cover a very wide field both in the study of virus antigens and antibodies, and in the analysis of virus multiplication. The chapter mentions the three variables of a complement fixation test that are the three components of the primary system: the antigen, the antiserum, and the complement. The object of a quantitative complement fixation test is to measure the amount of complement fixed in a set of reaction mixtures in which the amounts of antigen and antiserum are independently varied over a selected range. The chapter also presents and discusses two methods of measuring the amount of complement fixed by a particular antigen-antibody complex.
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