The Effect of Heat upon Antihemocyanin

In 1899 Bordet reported (7) some effects of heat upon antibody. His, and some subsequent early studies (33) indicated that brief exposure to moderate heat—56 to 85 C—made immune sera apparently nonreactive and that antibodies for different antigens can have different thermal labilities (5, 8, 30); heated immune serum that no longer visibly reacts can still combine with its antigen (13, 34). Orcutt (42) and Felix and Olitzki (16) confirmed previously reported differences in the thermal lability of (O and H) agglutinins. Later observations on the denaturation of antibody by heat and other agents have been considered by Marrack (38), Hartley (21), and Arkwright (1). Banzhaf (3) partially purified and concentrated diphtheric antitoxin by heating it at 57 C for 12 to 15 hours and subsequently separating the globulins with ammonium sulphate. After the antitoxic serum had been heated the amount of protein precipitated as euglobulin was increased and the amount as pseudoglobulin was decreased with only a small loss of antitoxin.