Studies on the Treponema pallidum immobilizing activity in normal human serum. 3. The kinetics of immobilization reaction of normal and immune sera.

The influence of immobilizing antibody, complement and lysozyme, on the T. pallidum immobilization reactions of normal and immune sera was studied. Lysozyme shortened the lag periods and increased the reaction rates of the reactions of normal and immune sera. At high concentrations of added lysozyme, variations in the concentrations of immobilizing antibody and complement, within a wide range, did not further influence the kinetics of the two reactions. Preincubation with lysozyme did not influence the treponemes in the following immune serum immobiliation reaction provided the lysozyme was removed before the addition of antibody and complement. Normal serum was found to immobilize T. pallidum more rapidly than immune serum. This was seen also if the reaction mixtures were almost identical, the only differences being the immobilizing IgM antibody involved in the normal and the IgG antibody involved in the immune serum reaction.