Absorption of tuberculin-active components with mycobacterial antibodies

Abstract

Protoplasmic extracts isolated from four different species of mycobacteria were treated with their corresponding antibodies; this resulted in a loss of 80 to 95% of their tuberculin activity when used as skin-test materials in guinea pigs sensitized with the homologous strains. The biological activity was recovered from the immuneprecipitates and the soluble immune complexes after dissociation with sodium thiocyanate and fractionation of columns of Sephadex G-100. It is concluded that most of the sensitins in mycobacterial extracts behave as antigens.