Human Bloods Research Articles

A New Antibody, Anti-Fy3, in the Duffy Blood Group System

A new antibody that reacts with all human bloods except those of type Fy(a-b-) has been named anti- Fy3. It is believed to detect a previously unknown bloodgroup antigen, which is possibly a precursor of Fya and Fy6.

A new antibody, anti-Fy3, in the Duffy blood group system.

Abstract. A new antibody that reacts with all human bloods except those of type Fy(a‐b‐) has been named anti‐Fy3. It is believed to detect a previously unknown blood‐group antigen, which is possibly a precursor of Fya and Fyb.

Shear-dependent deformation of erythrocytes in rheology of human blood.

Shear-dependent deformation of erythrocytes in rheology of human blood.

Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry of Rubidium in Biological Fluids

Abstract The atomic absorption spectrophotometric method for measurement of rubidium in serum, plasma, whole blood, and urine was evaluated, and the effects of interfering ions were studied. Absorbance was most enhanced by potassium and sodium; calcium, bicarbonate, and chloride at the concentrations found in serum did not affect rubidium absorption. Naturally occurring rubidium concentrations in serum, plasma, whole blood, and urine are 3, 4, 70, and 18 µEq/liter, respectively, much lower than expected therapeutic concentrations. Methods for preparing standards, optimum instrument settings, and special treatment of samples were established with specimens from monkeys treated with rubidium. These procedures are applicable to human bloods from patients receiving rubidium therapy when such therapy is begun for treatment of affective disorders.

Storage stability of different antibody species against arbovirus and rickettsial antigens in blood dried on filter paper discs.

Citrated human bloods containing yellow fever virus hemagglutination-inhi biting (HI) antibodies predominantly in the IgA, IgM or IgG immunoglobulin classes, epidemic typhus agglutinating (MA) antibodies distributed between IgG and either IgA or IgM immunoglobulins and typhus complement fixing (CF) antibodies in the IgG immunoglobulin class were dried on filter paper discs. After sealing in moisture-proof bags, groups of discs were stored at –20, +4, +26 and +37 C. EJuates prepared from the discs at intervals after drying were tested for the recovery of specific antibody activity. Antibody activity attributable to IgM immunoglobulin declined rapidly upon storage, regardless of temperature. Thus, yellow fever HI antibodies belonging to the IgM immunoglobulin class were not detectable in eluates which had been stored for 1 month, even at —20 C. In contrast, antibody activity residing in the IgG immunoglobulin class appeared to be relatively stable on filter paper discs over a 4 month period, especially when stored at lower temperatures. Stability of IgA antibodies requires further study. Interpretation of serologic data obtained from studies employing the filter paper disc technique must take into account differences in storage stability of the various classes of immunogbbulins.

Calcifying ability of human body fluids

Exposure of small slabs of presoftened tooth enamel to human bloods, synovial fluids, and salivary components caused a marked restoration of enamel hardness. The increase of hardness appeared to be related to the re-formation of hydroxyapatite. The procedure thus provides a method of measuring the calcification ability of a fluid. After implantation of the slabs subdermally in guinea pigs for 8 days, in vivo recalcification to the extent of 74–120 Knoop hardness units (KHN) occurred. Parotid, submaxillary and whole saliva had similar and strong calcification properties, indicated by rehardening to the extent of 100 KHN in 4–6 hr. Human serums and synovial fluids had modest but definite rehardening characteristics of the order of 30 KHN at 6 hr. The method appears to offer promise as an aid in the study of abnormal calcification and decalcification processes.

Comparisons of immune and naturally occurring blood grouping antisera on human bloods.

Comparisons of immune and naturally occurring blood grouping antisera on human bloods.

Accessory plasma factors involved in the bactericidal test for type-specific antibody to group A Streptococci. II. Human plasma cofactor (s) enhancing opsonization of encapsulated organisms.

A study was made of the nature of the thermolabile plasma factors in human blood which promote the phagocytosis of Group A streptococci in vitro in the presence of optimal amounts of type-specific M antibody. The plasmas of individuals with strong opsonic activity (normal) were compared with those of some individuals whose opsonic activity was consistently weak (deficient). A general relationship was established between encapsulation of streptococci and the opsonic requirement for thermolabile plasma factor(s). Marked differences in phagocytosis of Group A organisms by human bloods were demonstrated with encapsulated strains only. Human bloods deficient in the cofactor required for opsonization of encapsulated streptococci (coopsonin) showed a normal rate of phagocytosis against all other organisms and particles studied. Furthermore, coopsonin-deficient bloods contained normal levels of four components of complement, of properdin, of lysozyme, and of direct bactericidal activity against several species of Gram-negative organisms and of E. coli bacteriophage. The independence of the streptococcal coopsonin from complement was also demonstrated by absorption of plasma with bentonite and with zymosan. Under appropriate conditions, the coopsonin was reduced without significant loss of complement. The data support the concept that the capsule of the streptococcus imposes an opsonic requirement for a plasma factor(s) which is present in varying amounts in human bloods and which appears to be independent of the complement system. The possibility that it is accessory to the latter components has not been excluded.

The First Human Blood, ---/---, which Lacks the ‘D-like’ Antigen

THE ‘D-like’ antigen has been demonstrated in all Rh positive and Rh negative human bloods including the rare D --/D -- and rGrG (ref. 1), as well as in rhesus and other lower monkey red blood cells, but it was not found in common laboratory animals2,3. One of the characteristics of this antigen is its capacity to induce formation of ‘anti-D-like’ anti-bodies in guinea pigs. These red cells which possess this antigen after exposure to its antibody yield eluates exhibiting the ‘D-like’ specificity.

The Croonian Lecture A contribution to human biochemical genetics ; the chemical basis of blood-group specificity

In 1900 Landsteiner published the first of his fundamental discoveries which resulted in the division of human bloods into distinct groups and laid the foundation of our present-day knowledge of the specificity of human blood. He showed in a series of simple experiments that when serum and erythrocytes obtained from different persons were mixed together agglutination of the erythrocytes frequently took place, but that in some mixtures no agglutination occurred. It was deduced from these results, and other observations which were obtained somewhat later, that, according to whether or not the red cells contained one or two factors (later designated quite arbitrarily as factors A and B) or neither factor, human bloods could be classified into four groups. The serologically specific agent in the serum, the anti-A or anti-B agglutinin, occurs naturally and brings about the agglutination of those red cells which contain the A or B factors respectively. Antibodies which agglutinate group O cells specifically are not normally found in man and it is, therefore, not possible to detect group O cells directly. Landsteiner concluded from these studies that a person’s serum cannot contain antibody for antigens present in his own erythrocytes, and a definite relationship between different kinds of human blood was revealed and subsequently developed into what is now known as the ABO blood-group system. The relationships, in modern terminology, are given in table 1.

Accessory plasma factors involved in the bactericidal test for type-specific antibody to group A streptococci. I. A typical behavior of some human and rabbit bloods.

The bloods of two apparently healthy human beings, of 25 studied, failed to produce a strong bactericidal test for type-specific antibody to the M protein of group A streptococci under in vitro conditions wherein most human blood leukocytes rapidly phagocytize and destroy virulent organisms in the presence of anti-M antibody and accessory plasma factors. The defect in bactericidal activity of these two individuals is associated with the plasma rather than with the blood leukocytes. Leukocytes suspended in these atypical plasmas showed a characteristic delay in the rate of activation of phagocytosis. Although previously the bloods of laboratory animals (except monkeys) had been reported to be much less active than human blood in this system, occasional exceptions were encountered in rabbits in this study. Two rabbits were found whose bloods were as strongly bactericidal against streptococci, in the presence of type-specific antibody, as the blood of the average "normal" human being. The atypical behavior of some human and rabbit bloods in the bactericidal test may be explained by variations in accessory plasma factors that are as yet unidentified and that influence the rate of phagocytosis of virulent streptococci in vitro in the presence of type-specific antibody.

A study of the ecology of West Nile virus in Egypt.

Summary and Conclusions The results are recorded of an investigation of the geographical distribution of West Nile virus in Egypt and the southern Sudan, the epidemiology of human infection, and the general ecology of the virus in the Nile Delta, as revealed by virus isolations, surveys for specific antibodies and study of the biological environment. According to serological surveys the virus is widely disseminated along the Egyptian Nile and in the southern Sudan; 61 per cent of 1168 human bloods collected in Egypt and 40 per cent of 350 collected in the Sudan neutralized WN virus. In an endemic area in the Nile Delta where the intensive studies were conducted, West Nile infection is essentially a childhood disease with yearly peaks of transmission during mid-summer. No reliable information on the symptomatology of the infection in children was obtained, but the impression was gained that it is a self-limited, non-fatal febrile disease rarely associated with definite manifestations of encephalitis. The virus was repeatedly isolated from the blood of febrile children (23) and from mosquitoes, Culex univittatus (12) and Culex antennatus (5), twice from pigeons (Columba livia) and once from the hooded crow (Corvus corone sardonius). The fact that C. univittatus was more frequently found to be infected than any other species of mosquito may be due to its relative predilection for avian blood. None of 530 pools of other arthropods, including ticks, lice, fleas, mites and flies, yielded virus. On both experimental and ecological grounds it is concluded that the main cycle of the virus is probably through mosquitoes and birds in which man may become involved. Serological evidence points to infections of domestic quadrupeds, but these are probably only tangential or dead-end infections. It is likely that non-migratory birds are responsible for the local dissemination of the virus but, as it appears to be endemic in parts of the Nile Delta, its transport over long distances by migratory birds was not investigated. There is evidence for believing that the virus over-winters through a process of retarded transmission by the mosquitoes that remain active throughout the colder months, although the possible role of ticks as a reservoir of the virus should be further investigated. Non-endemicity in the northern rim of the Delta may be accounted for by the less dense human and bird population there and the scarcity of what appears to be the most important vector, C. univittatus.

淋菌の呼吸

Using the Warburg's gas manometric method the author measured the amount of oxygen gas used up for the respiration of gonococcus. In this procedure using three strains of gonococci, 2, 8cc of broth in the main compartment of flask, 0.2cc of 20% KOH in the centre well and 10mg of gonococci cultured at 36.5°C for 24 hours which was suspended in 0.2cc of Ringer's solution in sidearm were shaken for 15 minutes (turned 90 times per min). Thereafter gonococcal suspension was flowed into the main compartment to measure the amount of gas used from one hour (measured every 10 minutes) to four hours.Then the maximal amount of oxygen gas consumption of gonococci cultured in various kinds of medium was measured as optimum.In regard to peptone, the medium added with Proteose Peptone No. 3 Difco by 3%, and Teruuchi's peptone by 2% respectively were equally the best, and the liver extract is better than the beef extract.Human bloods (whole blood, blood cells and serum), animal bloods (horse, goat, rabbit and guinea pig), saccharides (glucose, saccharose, raffinose, starch, fructose and xylose), amino acids (1-cystine, 1-methionine and 1-glutamic acid) and yeast extract were used as adding substances to medium. Concerning the human blood the medium added with the whole blood by 40% being kept warm at 56°C for 30min, was the best in these series of experiments with blood cells by 40% and warm blood serum in the same ratio.The human and horse bloods were rather better than the others, and the horse blood was slightly better than the human blood.The glucose added by 0.5% was the best, the amino acid particularly 1-eystine by 0.05%. and Difco yeast extract by 1% were the optimal dosis respectively.It would seem preferable to use the culture medium with these substances in each optimal dosis in view of the respiration of gonococci as compared with GC medium. Eiken being mostly used at the present time.

Continuous Tissue Culture of Leukocytes from Human Leukemic Bloods by Application of “Gradient” Principles

Abstract Two methods of tissue culture based on gradient principles which have permitted continuous growth and multiplication of hemic cells for 6 months to 1 year are described. Three long-term cell strains were isolated from the bloods of patients with acute or chronic leukemias. Success with these methods depends on previous determination of the gradient factor for the particular cell type to be cultured. This can easily be accomplished by the gradient culture method, and these principles are in all probability applicable to all cell types grown in tissue culture. The isolation of these cells from blood excludes a fixed tissue cell as the only type capable of long term multiplication. The development of cells resembling tissue histiocytes, Dorothy Reed cells, and Langhan’s giant cells from cells cultured from the blood of acute monocytic leukemia lends further support to the view that the monocytic series and the histiocytic series (reticuloendothelial cells) are one and the same and can give rise by polyploidy and endomitosis to many types of giant cells.

Chagas' disease in Panama

In recent speech in Curitiba (May 22nd, 1954), Dr. Mario Pinotti, Director, Servico Nacional da Malaria, informed that his personnel started on February, 1953, a survey upon chagas Disease in 23 counties of the State of Parana, South Brazil. out of 895 places surveyed, 678, or 75.7%, were infected by Triatoma infestans klug 1834 and in 234 out of those 678, or 34.5%, this vector was infected by Trypanosoma cruzi. The general natural infection of the insects examined reached 18.86%. The serological survey (Machado-Guerreiro test) was positive in 10.7% of the persons examined in jacarezinho and in 28.3% of those living in Boa Vista. These data suggested the author to actualise the subject. During his control of severe outbreack of malaria in the North part of Parana, from march to June 1917 he worked in 8 counties. March 1917 he photographed in Boa Vista four girls, severe cases of chronic malaria, two of which showed bi-palpebral oedema, later on considered by Dr. Pinho Simoes (1943) as Romana syndrome (created in 1935) and Prof. Salvador Mazza (1946) classified as typical cases of Chagas' Disease. now, being elapsed 36 years, the National Service of Malaria confirmed the discovery. The region surveyed was populated, in the beginning of this century, by immigrants from the State of Minas Gerais, from where the author believes that were imported the disease and its vectors. In April 1917 the A. discovered that the old town Jatahy was a big focus of Triatoma megista (now Panstrongylus megistus0. All its 43 houses were strongly infested by such hematophagus and amongst the 200 inhabitants seen many were suspicious cases of chronic cases of Chagas's Disease. In the Indians town (three tribes) of S. Pedro D' Alcantara, situated in front of Jatahy, in the left side of the river Tibagy, there were no Triatomas nor suspicious cases of trypanosomiasis. In 1919 the author started the control of the endemics by destroying the foci of Triatomas and reforming the housing. In 1946 he returned to jatahy and found the sanitary conditions of the town and its inhabitants much better. Climate of the region is favorable to spreading of all tropical diseases, being very suitable one for an extensive sanitary survey. In 1943 Dr. Pinho Simoes examined 85 triatomas ( T. infestans) from six counties of the North region and found 40, or 46% infected by Trypanosoma cruzi. The highest incidences were; Joaquim Tavora 74.2% and Carlopolis 26.9%. These counties seem to be infested by Itaporanga county of Sao Paulo State. in 1953 Servico nacional da Malaria proved that 19 out of 23 counties surveyed were infested by Triatoma infestans. They examined 7,701 of this insect and found 1,453 positive for Trypanosoma cruzi, or 18.9%. in two counties, Jacarezinho and Senges, were examined 2,588 human bloods, not selected, and 323, or 12.6% of such samples were positive for Chagas' Disease. This year the Malaria Service is doing insects survey in 25 other counties and DDTising infested domiciles of another eight. Such activity is very promising and should be extended to other places.

Species specificity in the inhibition of antiglobulin sera; a technique for the identification of human and animal bloods.

Species specificity in the inhibition of antiglobulin sera; a technique for the identification of human and animal bloods.

Study of catalase in erythrocytes and bacteria. I. Procedure for the determination of the catalase activity of erythrocytes

A procedure has been described for the determination of blood catalase activity which is satisfactory for comparing the activity of blood from one species with that of another. The method is based on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide under conditions which detect significant differences in the blood catalase activity and which give reproducible linear results. The blood catalase activity values obtained by the procedure described were compared with those determined by a sodium perborate method and a reaction-rate method. Experiments pertaining to the procedure adopted showed: The catalase activity of human, rabbit, and guinea pig bloods in aqueous dilutions of 1:750, 1:500, and 1:400, respectively, did not decrease during 2 hr. at 0 °C.; in these dilutions the activity of blood catalase from the human and guinea pig was unstable when held at 25 °C. for 2 hr. Maximum catalase activity occurred in 0.1 – 0.2 N hydrogen peroxide. Dilution of hydrogen peroxide with 0.5% sodium chloride lowered the measurable catalase activity approximately 45% below the activity obtained with phosphate or tryptose diluents. Shaking the reaction mixture did not change the blood catalase values from those obtained without shaking.

The heredity of the new factor Q in human bloods

We found a new factor in human bloods, which is other than usual factors A, B, M, N and P.The new factor Q is demonstrable only by a normal pig serum, which contains an anti-Q agglutinin.The pure anti-Q agglutinin must be prepared by removing a heteroagglutinin, cold agglutinin, group-agglutinins (α', β') which are contained in a normal pig serum.The heteroagglutinin and cold agglutinin are removed by absorption with human blood cells of O type which have not the Q agglutinogen, and group agglutinins (α' and β') by absorption with Q free human blood cells of A and B type.The anti-Q agglutinin acts specially on the blood cell which has the Q agglutinogen. The anti-Q agglutinin was found in pig (in rate of 1%) but not in rabbit, cow, horse, dog and hen.The new factor Q is found in ca 31% of all human blood cells. (Table 1). The presence of Q is dominant against the absence of Q (qq). Hence, genetically three geno-types QQ, Qq and qq will be classified.We tested the hereditary relation of Q in 103 families. The results will be shown in tables 2-6.

The Blood Group Rh: Part II

The discovery of the Rh factor illustrates very strikingly how pure scientific research may yield unforeseen results of great practical importance. Physicians who frequently practised blood transfusion had long been aware that, in spite of the most careful matching of the donor's blood by the methods then in use, some patients receiving repeated transfusions be came progressively more difficult to transfuse owing to the occurrence of severe reactions. It was also known that such intra-group transfusion reactions occasionally occurred at the first transfusion, but only where the patient was pregnant or had been recently delivered. The finding of irregular iso agglutinins in the blood of such a case had also been recorded (Levine and Stetson, 1939). The term irregular implied that these agglutinins did not conform to the scheme of the four blood groups, A, B, AB, 0. But these observations remained isolated and uncoordinated until the discovery of the Rh factor by Landsteiner and Wiener in 1940. These workers observed that the injection of blood from rhesus monkeys into rabbits or guinea-pigs led to the develop ment of antibodies which reacted not only with the red blood cells of those monkeys but also with the cells of 85% of the white population; such persons were termed Rh-positive and the remaining 15% Rh-negative. It is interesting to note that the cells of some primate monkeys-e.g., chimpanzees-are uniformly Rh-negative (Wiener and Wade, 1945). Almost im mediately Wiener and Peters (1940) applied the discovery of the Rh factor in man to the identification of the irregular iso-agglutinins found in three sufferers from incompatible intra group transfusion reactions.t It was shown that all three recipients were Rh-negative, while the transfused blood was Rh-positive; accordingly they explained the intra-group incom patibility by the hypothesis that the Rh factor of the transfused blood had acted as an antigen and had brought about iso immunization of the Rh-negative recipients. Levine and his co-workers (1941) then demonstrated that the liability to severe intra-group transfusion reactions in the puerperium, usually associated with some foetal abnormality such as hydrops or erythroblastosis, was due to iso-immunization of Rh-negative women by pregnancy with a Rh-positive foetus, and they suggested that not only the maternal transfusion reaction but also the foetal disease was brought about by the action of Rh antibodies. These fundamental observations were quickly confirmed by workers in this country (Boorman, Dodd, and Mollison, 1942; Race, Taylor, Cappell, and McFarlane, 1943), and the various disorders-hydrops foetalis, icterus gravis, and congenital anaemia-were included under the heading haemo lytic disease of the newborn. The significance of iso-immuni zation of Rh-negative mothers was shown by statistical studies: hus abou 90% of the mothers of infants with haemolytic vdi ase were f und to be Rh-negative, while all the infants were Rh-positive. Wartime difficulties made. it impossible for most workers in Great Britain to use immune sera prepared against the cells of rhesus monkey , but sera from Rh-negative persons who had suffered intraroup transfusion reactions and sera from the mothers of erythroblastotic babies were found to be suitable f r the classification of human bloods into the Rh-positive and Rh-negative types. Family studies have shown that the Rh fact r is nherited as a simple Mendelian dominant: determined by an allelomo phic pair of genes-Rh and rh-but it must be not d that the Rh-neg ive quality of blood (rh) does not imply merely th absence of the Rh-positive quality (Rh), for it will be shown later that both Rh and rh are responsible for the pr sence of antigens in the red cells each of which can be detected in specific fashion by its appropriate antiserum. The Rh-rh genes are situated upon a different pair of chromosomes from those for the ABO and MN groups. When an individual possesses two similar genes for a character he is said to be homozyg us; when dissimilar genes are present he is hetero zygous for that character. There are thus three genetic classes of p rso she homozygous Rh-positive (RhRh), the hetero zy ous Rhositive (Rhrh) and the homozygous Rh-negative (rhrh). Further, it will be shown below that Rh and rh are not simple entiti s, but represent gene-complexes, each of which is c mposed of three closely linked genes, and some at least of the ge e loci are the seat of multiple allelomorphism.

The Rh Factor in Blackwater Fever

The idea that some form of sensitization might be associated with the development of blackwater fever has been previously suggested by Foy, Altmann, Barnes and Kondi (1), and Fernán-Núñez (2). The idea expressed in this preliminary note was developed from the studies of these workers and those of Whitmore (3, 4).In 1940, Landsteiner and Wiener (5) described the existence of a new factor in human bloods (the so-called “Rh Factor”). In 1941, Burnham (6), and Levine, Katzin and Burnham (7) associated the Rh factor with erythroblastosis fetalis.With these basic observations as a nucleus, let us now consider the theoretical possibilities of the Rh factor, or an Rh-like substance, in the causation of blackwater fever.Following the demonstration of the Rh factor in the blood, Landsteiner and Wiener (8) showed that the factor (agglutinogen) was inherited as a simple Mendelian dominant. Later, Levine, Vogel, Katzin and Burnham (9) demonstrated the isoimmunization pathogenesis of erythroblastosis fetalis.