Mycoplasma -Latex Agglutination Reaction

Abstract

Morton, Harry E. (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia). Mycoplasma -latex agglutination reaction. J. Bacteriol. 92: 1196–1205. 1966.—The building up of Mycoplasma cell mass through adsorption to carrier particles as a method for enhancing the agglutination reaction to identify Mycoplasma is described. Mycoplasma cells of human, avian, swine, goat, sewage, and tissue-culture origin were adsorbed to latex particles (0.81 μ) and then were agglutinated by immune sera. The adsorption was demonstrated by electron microscopy. Either the cells or their antibodies, depending on which came into contact with the latex particles first, were adsorbed. The test, completed in less than 2 hr, consisted of serially diluting immune sera with buffered saline, adding the antigen, incubating in a water bath, centrifuging, and reading the reaction under 50 × microscope magnification. The antigen in each reaction tube, representing the growth from about 1.6 ml of culture, was estimated to contain 23 μg of protein (approximately one-tenth the amount of Mycoplasma cells needed for a direct agglutination reaction). In the sera from rabbits undergoing immunization with Mycoplasma antigens, the presence of anti- Mycoplasma antibodies was detected much sooner in the Mycoplasma -latex agglutination reaction test than in the agar-gel diffusion reaction and the growth inhibition tests. Four different lots of latex particles showed excellent uniformity of behavior and stability during storage and testing.