ON THE ANTIGENICITY OF INSULIN: FLOCCULATION OF INSULIN-ANTIINSULIN

Abstract

Serum from a horse which had received a series of injections of crystalline ox insulin showed typical flocculation with a solution of crystalline ox and pig insulins and with crude insulin extracted from the pancreas of the rabbit, horse, monkey, whale, and human. Flocculation was due to insulin and its corresponding antibody, since both insulin and antiinsulin, measured by mouse convulsion test, could be recovered from floccules. The ratio of insulin antibody to insulin (equivalence zone) is in the order of 497 to 553 micrograms per unit of insulin (40 μg). This corresponds to a molecular ratio of antibody: insulin of 3:1.