Factors Influencing the Agglutinability of Red Cells. Variation of the Red Cells of the Rabbit in Susceptibility to Agglutination by Homologous Iso-Antisera

Abstract

Summary and Conclusions1. Rabbit cells show a marked variation in agglutination when reacting with apparently homologous iso-antisera.2. This phenomenon has been investigated in two ways:(a) Samples of apparently homologous antisera have been absorbed with (i) strongly agglutinating cells, (ii) poorly agglutinating cells. It was found that strongly agglutinating cells absorbed the antibody completely and rapidly from the serum, whilst poorly agglutinating cells, though they absorbed it completely, did so much more slowly. Also, when a serum which had been absorbed with poorly agglutinating cells until these no longer reacted with it was titrated against strongly agglutinating cells, these were still strongly agglutinated. This showed a source of serious error when investigating new sera by absorption techniques and when using weak antisera for grouping purposes.(b) Poorly agglutinating cells were injected into rabbits, and the antisera so obtained were examined against strongly agglutinating cells and against the poorly agglutinating cell used as the antigen. The antibody response was poor; two out of eight rabbits developed an antibody, and strongly agglutinating cells reacted more strongly with these antisera than the poorly agglutinating cells which had been used as the antigen.3. Three hypotheses for this variation in agglutination have been put forward and discussed:(a) That the variation is due to cross reactions between numbers of closely related antigen-antibody systems. The results of the investigations 2 (a) and 2(b) suggest that this is unlikely.(b) That the disposition of antigen sites on the surface of the red cell is a factor determining the agglutinability of the cell. It is considered that this might play a subsidiary role in the phenomenon as it is shown in the rabbit.(c) That rabbit red cell agglutinability is mainly determined by the number of antigen sites on the cell available to the antibody. The experimental results can be explained on this hypothesis, and it is suggested that this may be the main factor accounting for the behaviour of rabbit red cells. It is pointed out that supporting evidence for this is afforded by measurements with radio iodinated antisera.

Semi-Quantification of Lectins in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Genotypes via Hemagglutination

“…Classically, a visual observation method is widely employed in laboratories for routine coagulation assays due to their simplicity. Visual observations in microplates can readily determine hemagglutination titer [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. This study aimed to assess the presence of seed storage lectins in various rice accessions mainly originated from Pakistan without stress to know the inherent capability of rice genotypes expressing phyto-agglutinin.…”

The Recognition of Four Red Cell Antigen-Antibody Systems in the Rabbit

“…Before describing the properties of Z, Y, X and W antibodies a difficulty must be mentioned, which has been noted by other workers and is fully discussed in another paper (Heard, 1955). Rabbits vary in the susceptibility of their red cells to agglutination by homologous iso-antisera, some being strongly agglutinated and others poorly.…”

“…Incomplete absorption of this kind can-and did-lead to much confusion as to the number of antibodies a serum really contains. It is suggested (Heard, 1955) that this difference between cells may be due to a difference in the number of antigen sites available for the antibody under consideration.…”

“…However, the factors determining the amount of antibody on the rabbit's red cell are probably rather complicated. In another paper (Heard, 1955) it is shown that the cells of some rabbits absorb more homologous antibody than others, and that this may be due to a variation in the number of antigen sites available. The amount of antibody which red cells will absorb from a serum will depend on their own absorptive power and on the amount of antibody in the serum.…”

Horse Blood Groups and Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn Foal*

“…It is suggested that these differences are due to differences in the amount of antigen present on the cells, so that one class of cell has insufficient antigen to fix the minimum amount of antibody, and therefore of complement, required for conglutination or lysis to occur, whilst the lysable cell has more antigen. Similar techniques have been used to show differences in the amount of Hg antigens in the rabbit (Boursnell et al, 1955;Heard, 1955;and Joysey, 1955).…”